• Wonderful Spam, Beautiful Spam

    Spammers Booted (For Now)

    US firm Savvis was allegedly earning up to $2 million a month from 148 of the world's worst spammers, a former employee had claimed. Following talks with anti-spam groups, Savvis has now promised to get rid of the spammers using its network. I'd never heard of Savvis, but the subsidiary they bought and "inherited" the spammers from didn't have a good reputation from what I recall (I used to read some of the anti-spam newsgroups back in the day). However, it's likely someone will form a new corporation to pick up all that lovely business, because Savvis really, really liked…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    Watch Out For My Mom, JPL Geeks!

    Hey, wacky NASA guys! Careful with that thing, you could have hurt somebody – like my MOM for Christ’s sake!! Jeeez! Be more careful next time. (when I saw the news footage at lunch, with only sketchy closed captioning, it looked like they were finally reported the aliens had landed… really hard.)

  • SABRE2th Tigress: Book 'em, Dano.

    Just Keep Repeating The Mantra, Lady

    I love my job. I love my job. I love my job. Yesterday was from hell. I kept getting sidetracked by more and more issues and then I’d get reminded of all the extra stuff I have to keep an eye on with my TL out of town, and I got out of there at almost 645pm. One of the international travelers completely rebooked her India itinerary. Twice! I was ready to come through the phone and smack her, because in the end it was the same way I booked it to start with, except with a stopover in London.…

  • Food, Glorious Food - Uncategorical Weirdness

    Gatherings

    Yesterday we went up to Dan and Deb’s for an open house celebrating their new house (it’s rent-to-own). It was a nice time – lot of the neighbors came, which was nice for them. It was kind of a crowd and kind of loud, which was not so nice for me. There was a lot of food – probably shouldn’t have hit the carob-covered pretzels quite so hard. After we’d been there a few hours, Mitch took off to kidnap Gloria away from some law project she was working on, and we and David’s parents met them at the Weber…

  • Politics, Schmolitics

    Free Speech In America

    Activist/protestor June Brashares shouted “Bush Lied, People Died” during the worship service/acceptance speech, and was quickly hustled out of the area. Another protestor, Jodi Evans, also protested and was also speedily removed. The onlookers gawk, smiling smugly, at the spectacle of a basher in Barbara Bush pearls getting tossed out of their little pep rally. This is a screen capture from the video. And yes, that’s a security guy’s hand, attempting to muzzle her as she passes by the press section and all their hungry, hungry microphones. Via MR in conjunction with Joshua Berman of the LA Weekly.

  • Music

    Back Cracker, and Cracker Back

    I had my first “real” session with the new chiropractor last night. If you’ve been to the “back cracker” you know the drill; at some point, therapeutic violence will be done to your musculo-skeletal system. And at that point, you’ll make a loud “Whuff!” sound and hear alarming crackling sounds transmitted not through the air to your ears from without, but through your bones to your ears from within. Did that. Yep. No T-shirt, though. And I’ve been snap, crackle, poppin’ all day since then. My neck was temporarily loosened up last night (the masseur, Tyrone, went town on several…

  • Clan: McTiVo

    Can’t Cut It In Calcutta

    Racing ineptitude abounds as lost bags, new taxi arguments, and misread clues send the teams on a remarkably sloppy trip through India. Ah, India. Can Colin find a more intense way to make a brick? Can a Twinkie make a brick at all? Will Linda be this week’s arrested contestant? Will Nicole stop into a mosque for a latte? Will the locals hurt themselves pushing taxis for teams who don’t even want to help? And most of all, will Brandon shave his head for his half of a million dollars? The answers to these and other questions in this week’s…

  • Funnies

    Fungo’s Revenge

    A rare “ears up” reaction from Bucky at the horrifying realization that Fungo the Ferret and his buddies probably bought up all the modified “Bucky Katt” action figures because they were ready-made voodoo dolls. Serves him right for ruining Rob’s expensive Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings figurines. I had to blog this, because it cracks me up to see perennially cranky Bucky with his ears perked up – in most cats this is a sign of pleasure and interest, but in Bucky’s case it usually means “Oh, shit!” Besides which, I just lurve Satchel’s clueless but…