The earthquake/tsunami disaster just keeps getting worse and worse. Many people and sites are working to get aid workers, donations and supplies out, and refugees, survivor messages, and information back. BoingBoing has been covering the relief effort extensively. The IRC has got a family contact database and also a disaster clearinghouse. Google has a special link to disaster relief organisations, websites, and blogs. When the first wave came in, we were happy that we were seeing something that was really strange, but it was a very mild wave. Then the sea receded back, and we didn’t know what that meant.…
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I’ve been chuckling evilly while reading this book; Bill Bryson looks very cuddly and teddy-bear-ish, but writes like a born-again curmudgeon. He’s just about to start the West portion of his self-drive nostalgia trip, headed toward Colorado. Which is pretty much how we started our epic road trip last May, so I’m looking forward to going along for the ride. Also in “Books” news, I’ve added links to my All Consuming Favorite Books and Currently Reading pages. Apparently both pages have newsfeeds, so I may add links for those later. For now I’ll continue using BookQueue in conjunction with All…
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I was sitting up reading last night when all of a sudden a storm hit – there was no warning other than a lot of wind earlier in the day – and it rained and thundered for about an hour or so. When there’s a storm the wind will beat on the whole house like a drum. I figured today would be a big rainy mess, but it’s actually very warm and balmy. The sun is out and everything is fresh and clean, although the wind is still blowing strongly from the South. If the wind swings around to the…
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Currently struggling to get BookQueueToo implemented. It doesn’t seem to want to work with MT2.661, but works well with MT3.x etc. Other places to check: MT Plugins Amazon Web Services Blog WYSIWYG, with a helpful hint about which folder/directory it should be in. I ended up uninstalling BookQueue, BookQueueToo, RE-installing BQ2, and then uninstalling it and trying to reinstall the original BQ. With me so far? The books are still showing up on the blog, but now I can’t access the old interface, probably because David needs to re-set the permissions on the original version. Fooey, I don’t want to…
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Previously on 101 Reasons To Fire Your Contestant Screeners: Kendra discovered that if you can’t put the word “good” in front of it and use it to describe the practice of not spitting when you talk, it’s really better to stay away from the word “breeding” altogether. Gus experienced a moment of revelation right here in the middle of this here game show, leaving thousands of confused viewers who saw this listed under “reality shows” to scratch their heads, pop another mouthful of caramel corn, and say, “When do they get naked and eat the bugs?” Lori and Bolo wanted…
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I had to go to our other location today and try to swap out one of our brand new Windows XP computers for a somewhat older computer at the “onsite.” This project was laid upon me late yesterday, and I was told to go out today after lunch. Turns out that the lady at the onsite would really, really have preferred I come out in the morning, and I was missing half the technical info I needed, and had to call the “hardware” help desk twice, and learned way, way more about how SABRE sets connect together (physically putting the…
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… to read this book. It’s true crime, a genre I normally like a lot if well written. But it’s all mixed up with the author’s outlook, personal problems, and some rather shameless self-justifying prose defending his reasons for wanting to gamble, frequent strip joints, and buy glitzy jewelry in the interests of “color” or “background” or “research.” It’s called Positively Fifth Street and I was positively certain I’d never manage to finish it if I read the author’s “background” stories about playing poker in Vegas, so I stuck to the courtroom drama and dramatized reconstructions of a famous Sin…
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Finally got around to checking for a new full-length recap at TWOP today – this is for the Budapest episode of Amazing Race. Tonight’s episode is some kind of clip/highlights show, perhaps using some of the online clips from the CBS website? I don’t know, this is a clip-show TAR is a first for me, too. I hope there will be hints regarding the fate of Lori and Bolo, sleepin’ on the bench. In the meantime, I can enjoy some savory snark from Miss Alli.
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Just in case my sister needs ideas for next Christmas: she’s one of those people that starts shopping in January. I’ll have to decline the kind offer from the same site for their Bobblehead Jesus page linked to the Holy Moly site, though. I don’t think Father Ted would go for it. Happy Blogoversary To Me (and Rance) I got a couple of emails this week reminding me that Rance first started blogging about this time last year. As it happens, so did I, about 2 weeks earlier. And what with the holidays and shopping and screwing around last week…
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It's that most wonderful time of the year, the season of Xcess! And it's not quite over, as after a successful morning's buffet breakfast and an afternoon of lying around contentedly with full tummies, we headed to the home of nearby friends for a Solstice party of eating, geeking out, and comparing holiday horror stories. It was a really lovely meal, with an actual Christmas goose, served with "goose juice" (Cumberland sauce) instead of gravy and lots of delicious side dishes. Also, there was a flirtatious kitty to wheedle, and wacky Xcess holiday tunes. The day ended on a fun,…