I feel like I should do something today. Maybe take a shower for example. I got home about an hour ago and have been mostly sitting on the couch.

Santa Cruz was awesome, however. I got bitten by a rabbit and woke up with a feral kitten on my chest which was kinda surprising. We also went inside a redwood, had a picnic near some trees (really cool fucking trees), fed horses, petted goats, and saw a historic ranch. Hmm, and there was an attempt at strawberry picking that involved watching a state trooper shoot a coyote. It was all very exciting. And family dinner at Belmont house complete with fire spinning (actually there was a lot of really good food all over Santa Cruz). And I ate a thing that used to have big brown eyes and loved it's mother and it was the tastiest damn thing ever.

Oh, and if I haven't returned your call it's because my phone was off and stuff.

Dr. Horrible is excellent. And today is the last day it's available for free on their website.

Go watch it now.

That is all.

I've got to make room to put more stuff in it...

This probably involves buying more shelves, setting them up, and trying to organize stuff.

As with oh-so-many things in my life these days, I really don't want to try doing this alone, but any amount of company/moral support, even if it doesn't involve much aid in the lifting/hauling/organizing realm, will help.

I'd be happy to offer same to you...

You just have to be able to deal with our basement. ... and with home despot or lowes or somesuch. :)

(There's another (meta-)post about the 3rd paragraph to follow /sometime/ in the future... but not now.)

My wife makes a friggin' awesome breakfast.

taught riding (incl. a little riding myself)

got ice cream

went to artbeat intending to buy two presents; instead got myself a necklace and my cousin mara a t-shirt

went to scul, had fantastic mission (must write up!), knighted ld50!!


today: intended to teach riding early, attend ponies with hoof trimmer, go to last few minutes of readercon, clean house

actual today so far: rescheduled/replanned riding lesson for later, sent elf to barn, may yet clean house.


damn. i really really wanted to go to readercon :/ but thurs. and fri. were occupied with trying to finish up my job (and riding/teaching riding) and weekends are insane.

i'd like to be less heavily scheduled. hoping it's an outcome of otherwise-uncontrollable events real soon.....

Good morning, LJ Genie.

My uncle has phoned me (I was having such nice dreams, too) for tech support because he's got this anti-spyware crap that keeps popping up and telling him to purchase it for it to clean his computer. He says he didn't install it. An investigation leads me to to discover that SpyBurner Pro is fake anti-spyware designed to attempt to get your money, put your data at risk, and essentially annoy the living daylights out of you.

Does anyone know if there's a removal tool for getting rid of spyburner? Google shows a lot of crack sites and a lot of other sites that I'm paranoid about, so I'm not sure if what my uncle would download will be safe. I do not have access to my uncle's computer (he's down in Brighton, I'm up in Lincolnshire), and he's not very computer savvy so I'd rather not have to talk him through a manual removal if possible.

So, pointers towards a legit removal tool would be fantastic, and failing that pointing me at thorough manual removal instructions so I can be sure we get everything would be awesome, thanks. :)

http://www.cartoonlabs.com/comics/index.php?date=2008-07-20&show=sinfest

Sinfest
Tatsuya Ishida

Can't believe it's over. Balls.

together again!
(and violet again YAY!)



Aurilion has written some about the visit here and here and here! (feel free to go over and say hi!) -- I'll probably wait to write until later ;-)

In light of *ahem* certain hackneyed plot points in one big blockbuster film (so I hear) and one popular internet vignette made by a self-named male feminist popping up of late, I thought I'd pass on this particular website.

Women in refrigerators is a website about the comics (and elsewhere, but especially comics) phenomenon of the main male character and/or villain getting their character development through the torture, rape, or murder, or otherwise depowering of the female characters in their lives. It's named for the particularly disturbing example of one guy's girlfriend being found in a refrigerator.

In fact, this device is used for the female's "character development" as well.

From the site:

"Not every woman in comics has been killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies befall her, but given the following list (originally compiled by Gail, with later additions and changes), it's hard to think up exceptions:"

The list is here: http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/women.html

And the site had reactions by many comics artists to the site posted. Not all of the men, but a great many of them are defensive and/or making excuses for the tired old tradition of not giving women agency. Some of the men are apologetic, but with the aim of making themselves not look bad, not changing this practice. I admit I haven't read them all, I got too annoyed. The responses from women (all working in the comic industry, all lovers of comics, mind you, you gotta be critical of the things you love) are the best.

Excerpt from Joan Hilty (editor, DC Comics):
"The response that 'male characters get killed too' is completely disingenuous. You only need to have the faintest grasp of feminist or semiotic theory to know that it's not just how often it's done, it's HOW it's done and TO WHOM certain things are done. The sexually violent visual language of how these women get killed is remarkably consistent. Really, the larger reality is that American mainstream comics, built by guys for guys on the crumbling foundations of superhero fantasy, remain intensely hostile to women, consciously and subconsciously. As political and cultural landscapes shift and evolve worldwide and it gets harder and harder for white guys to retain their perceived right to run the world, you can see the frustration act itself out in various forms of hideous backlash -- everything from "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" to Katma Tui.

The response that superhero comics are aimed at a particular audience is also lame, especially when it's been long been public knowledge that the industry is suffering. Any successful form of mass entertainment learns to adapt to popular taste to reach wider audiences. When people lost interest in Westerns, Hollywood stopped making westerns. When people lost interest in serial fiction, the Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing. Comics, for some reason, thinks it's a world apart. So the train keeps hurtling towards the cliff edge, and everyone suffers."

Not one to mince words! (Her full response here: http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/c-jhilty.html

The rest of the responses are here: http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/creators.html

In short, shame on you, Joss Whedon!

( details on why shame on him that are spoilers )

Booo!

Come see (me in) Fluid Movement's water ballet for summer 2008!

PRESIDENT HUMPTY SAT ON A WALL
PRESIDENT HUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL
Will the Voters of Nurseryland put him back together ?
Come see the colorful citizens of Nurseryland swim and entertain
in this politically charged water ballet extravaganza!!

show dates are:

Riverside Pool: Saturday July 26, 2008, Show at 6:00 p.m. only. Beer and Hotdog Benefit Tickets are $25.00 (for this show only)

Riverside Pool: Sunday July 27, 2008, Shows at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Patterson Park Pool: Saturday August 2, 2008, Shows at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Patterson park Pool: Sunday August 3, 2008, Shows at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Tickets for these shows are $9.00

Ticket information is the below.
The tickets are up and available on-line. People can buy regular tix or do an Adopt-A-Rhyme sponsorship through the site. Here are direct links to the purchase pages:

Riverside Park Dates:

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/38561

Patterson Park Dates:

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/38563


If you are coming let me know if you can. If you show up, stay until after the show you see and say hello. whiskey_poptart and ding_0_ are also in this show, among others.

-hands that can handle driving to work & back, & petting people & kitties, & class, & silly games
-knowing who australian_joe _is_, again.
-silly/sweet/cute movies like Juno
-showers
-air conditioning so my attic apartment doesn't prevent sleeping (and anything involving touching other people) all summer.
-metahacker
-psinging, for people I love, for singing with others
-my arms being noticeably stronger to external comparisons

but now, sleep. hopefully.

That is all.

john kerry coming off his flight, out through security. with his guitar (?!)

mrs. massachusetts and mrs. virgin islands, sitting at the gate for their flight to vegas, wearing their banners and fixing their makeup.

Sadly, I missed ArtBeat today. It was too hot to even try it, and I found myself just not in the mood for festivities.

vanguardcdk and I have ALL of our air-conditioners cranking, and it's still fairly hot. There's a spider with bitey pinchers on the back balcony. I'm going out for the evening soon. I hope it cools down tonight, and that the spider goes away.

3:00pm, Dance Complex, Central Square, first in a series of 4

3-4pm beginners (I suggest getting there 15 minutes early)
4-5pm intermediate, beginners encouraged to stick around

After that, Johnny D's blues bombing

Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Go watch go watch go watch! The three 15 min acts are free until tomorrow, and then will be available on itunes and dvd. Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, Joss Whedon. There've been a number of articles in the news and it hit NPR last night. More on drhorrible.net

It's marvy. I found the first bit kinda slow, but then the singing started. Never knew NPH had a Broadway background.


For those of you who've already seen it, tacnukesoul had an interesting analysis.

And now my laundry's likely to be done, and having breakfasted I needs must get dressed and out into the sun!

i don't even remember if i posted about recent brand-new student. seems like a promising one. i may need to buy a megaphone.

today i taught and old student who hadn't ridden in awhile, along with elf my elf. since it's hot as a witch's left tit we mostly walked, bareback, working on turns, posture, and the occasional halt and back.
this went pretty well. elf my elf's posture improved, my old student worked on feeling the base of her spine, and both horses went nicely. (i got on both of them to demonstrate various things, hence the "riding" bit.) elf my elf has the loveliest vaulting mount now. and once i gave the other student the crop and said "now thwack" and "now thwack" (just the twice), she got a beautiful, straight on the straights and rounded in the corners, nicely four-beat tolt. it's all good.

then handwashing (ljufur's sheath was particularly gross and attracting flies, so we cleaned it, so i was quite a mess myself) and an ice-cream float for me, and now maybe a nap in my a/c, and maybe a little artbeat later on if i can handle it.

It looks like I should be able to rent out my condo for 8/1. As much as I don't want to leave this place, the stress of making ends meet right now is more than I can live with. Also, beowabbit has agreed to rent his extra bedroom to me! My plan is to pack like mad this week, and move boxes everything next weekend. That gives me a few days to scrub the place from top to bottom and take photos of the current conditions before the tenant(s) move in.

I can use any and all help I can get in the meantime. Particularly, anyone who can offer help with carrying and ferrying my belongings from my house to Jay's next weekend would be hugely appreciated. I don't really have a lot of stuff, but I find that the more people I can get involved, the quicker and cheerier things work out.

Between now and then, I would totally appreciate help with packing as well. The truth is, I'm pretty devastated to be moving out of this place, and having company while I pack could help distract me from dwelling on the unhappy bits.

It would appear McCain & al. have been reading drivel like The Secret and think that the nation's problems could be solved with just a bit of positive thinking! I blame Oprah.

Happy birthday ragingamazon! I wish the Right Coast and the Wrong Coast (except it’s where you are, so it can’t be too wrong) could get together and throw you one awesome party.

Free, donations accepted:

http://community.livejournal.com/arisia/234483.html

Just spreading the word...

I inadvertently made a pancake that looked like Scruff McGruff, the crime dog.

 

Apparently, the numbers on the scale haven't budged much in the last couple of months (I'm hovering around the 188 range), but since May I've lost a full inch off my abs and 3/4 inch off my hips. Not too damn bad.

I do, however, need to step up the eating plan - I've gone back to snacking a bit obsessively. All reasonably healthy stuff, but still stuff I don't need to be eating, and I'm not particularly hungry for.

Still, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Also, random movie quote, from my day at the gym:

"I should have  been a better father to you, Dewey. I should have spent more time laughing and playing with you and less time training my body and mind to kill you in a machete fight." I am amused.

That, and yesterday's amusement: "look at my wrist - it's time for me to get going!"

I'm having a hell of a time figuring out the simplest, cleanest way of navigating the directory tree from within a python script. All I want to be able to do is write or append to a file inside of a directory. I'm pretty sure I could figure out how to make this work from the documentation, but I'm not confident that I'd be doing it in the most appropriate manner (e.g. I might be using a low-level write function unnecessarily). Help?

Wanted: Full-time (45 hrs./wk) minion for small boy (1 yo) attempting world domination. Must be energetic, patient, have good sense of humor. Non-smoking,please. Ball-throwing, singing, dancing, dog-identifying skills, ability to recite "Mr. Brown Can Moo" and infant CPR certification a plus. Special consideration given to candidates able to sing phone messages, a la Bad Horse. Compensation: small wage, plus room and board (in Boston, near red line). No housework. Family is geeky liberal, queer-friendly.


(I am contemplating also putting this on Craig's List. I'm not sure how much I would edit it. Thoughts?)

Acting on a suggestion from zathrus, we offered Danger Lad! a bedtime snack last night. He was hungry, he got through about 3/4 of a container of yogurt. (We had some leftover peach, and he finished that and still seemed hungry, so we cracked open another container.) He then slept from 9 until 5:10 in the morning, straight through, uninterrupted, 490 blissful and consecutive minutes of rest.

There are no guarantees that this will work again. There are only guarantees that we will repeat the experiment.

• 09:57 Heading to Social Media Camp, running errands, @toyshoppe finally gets his iPhone today, and some mashing tonight. Alex Grey too?!? #
• 12:52 late for social media camp, celebrating @toyshoppe and his iphone store survival skilz. 2 hr wait @thegrove #
• 16:14 @saulcolt Thanks for the great questions on communities for the disabled in Second Life. Rich social media landscape in virtual worlds! #
• 16:33 Need recommendation: best twitter client/app for the new iPhone? What's the difference? #
• 17:56 Bought flowers for @sugarshack for making it thru plan check, squeaky clean happy city progress! Now to the mashables, where's @toyshoppe? #
• 23:22 Nice to meet you @maxgladwell and others at the @lamash .... still tasting those drinks and seeing the flashbulbs, such techiepaparazzi! #
• 23:54 Skipping Busby's, we're dancing late night tomorrow at Circus after the GLOW show in Santa Monica. Tonight I belong to @drhorrible #

oh and by the way, I love you!

http://www.cartoonlabs.com/comics/index.php?date=2008-07-19&show=sinfest

Sinfest
Tatsuya Ishida

photos from redheadedmuse's birthday party, and photos from star island...

( and a few of my favorites behind the cut... )

...and now i'm caught up on photography, in time to leave on vacation and get behind again :)

OH MY GOD DOCTOR HORRIBLE!

Best thing ever?

Best thing ever.

WARNING: Katters did, without irony, exclaim "JOSS WHEDON IS AN ASSHOLE". This shocks no one, but OHMAN, is he a good asshole.

Alsoalso, do you think Neil Poon-HandlerPatrick Harris would have a threesome with me and The Katters? Because we will totally write to him and ask, even if he is *fabulously* gay.

That is all. Go watch.

~Sor
MOOP!

Thanks to chienne_folle for arranging tickets, beah and I got to go get rocked out in Lowell. Melissa Etheridge still has a great stage presence. And a damn good backup band.

Every time I go to good live music, I remember why I ought to go to more good live music. Sadly, I then don't keep up the commitment again.

pagan_kissed asked me today if I'd be willing to be godmomma to little baby Colin. So pleased! He's such a sweet little bugger - spent the whole day bonding with him at Lincoln Woods along with pagan_kissed, Patience and Jesse. Definitely was the right day to spend in the water.

Can't believe I'm a godmomma! *squee*

"I was looking at websites under the keyword oregon medical marijuana and came across your website http://tzk-design.com. I see that you're not ranked on the first page of Google for a oregon medical marijuana search."

Um... yeah. Probably wouldn't be. Why?

I'm not sure if you're aware of why you're ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.

There's no reason you can't have a top three ranking for the keyword oregon medical marijuana based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.

You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you're interested I can help you with this...

Salespeople are effing crazy sometimes.

 
We take a day trip to Nara and are mobbed by voracious deer! We see big things, then even bigger things! No seriously, you have to see how big these things are. There are pretty views, a few key facts about restaurants, a hall with a MILLION ARMS. Then I go on about expensive department stores and we meet the Japanese DuffMan. It's all pretty awesome, and to read it you just ( click here. )

Your two links for the day:

* synecdochic writes: Why Monetizing Social Media Through Advertising Is Doomed To Failure (part one)

* bbbsg sent me this: ever seen a creepier tower?  Seriously, keep scrolling down.

* phinnia linked to odd-looking marine animals.  The text is okay, but the pictures are amazing.

* IN CONCLUSION, mactavish sends this on:

[Sorcyress] STOP TAKING SCREENSHOTS!
[Sorcyress] I DO NOT LOVE THEM!
[Sorcyress] OR YOU!
[MadKatter] BUT I LIKE THE CLICKY NOI-- WHAT
[HarenaOfWoozalia] oooh, screenshots of whaaat?
[MadKatter] NO HOW COULD YOU
[MadKatter] AFTER YOU CHEATED ON ME WHILE I WAS IN THAT COMA WITH MIGUEL
[Sorcyress] ...
[HarenaOfWoozalia] :O
[HarenaOfWoozalia] how COULD you, Sor???
[Sorcyress] 'kay, I'm lying, I totally love you
[HarenaOfWoozalia] hee
[MadKatter] But then how could you have done the diddly with Miguel, Sor? How?
[HarenaOfWoozalia] not ... not the diddly!!
[Sorcyress] Very simple. He put his peener in my vajeener. VAJEENER!
[HarenaOfWoozalia] :O :O
[MadKatter] D:
[HarenaOfWoozalia]
[MadKatter] ...
[MadKatter] D:
[HarenaOfWoozalia] not.. his peener.. in your VAJEENER????
[Sorcyress] Disclaimer: He did not actually put his peener in my vajeener. My vajeener is, and always has been, peener free
[HarenaOfWoozalia] and rightly so. *nods*
[MadKatter] But.. but did he put it in your ear? Did you hear what his peener had to say?
[HarenaOfWoozalia] :O
[Sorcyress] ....
[Sorcyress] PEENERS DO NOT GO IN SOR!
[Sorcyress] SOR-HOLES ARE NOT FOR PEENERS!
[HarenaOfWoozalia] Sor... how COULD you let him put it in your EAR???
[Sorcyress] NONE OF THEM ARE!
[MadKatter] THERE'S NOTHIN' FOR 'EM THERE
[Sorcyress] Har: He didn't! Katters is making up lies because I won't let her have...the shirt
[HarenaOfWoozalia] ...
[MadKatter] I am doing no such thing! It was Miguel! Miguel lied to me!
[HarenaOfWoozalia] not.. THE SHIRT?
[HarenaOfWoozalia] Rtizy, i mean, honestly
[MadKatter] He ... he said you got him prognant with Jason's half-chicken-embreyois
[MadKatter] Hey
[MadKatter] I wasn't done
[Sorcyress] Miguel is a slut and a liar! He is a lying slut!
[HarenaOfWoozalia] with half-chicken-emberyois?
[HarenaOfWoozalia] i bet they's really good deep-fryed
[HarenaOfWoozalia] with cheese *nods*
[HarenaOfWoozalia] and bacon
[MadKatter] How was I supposed to know that interrobang?! I've been in a COMA
[HarenaOfWoozalia] and chocklit
[HarenaOfWoozalia] and whipped cream
[Sorcyress] ...*ressurects and/or uncomafies you?*
[HarenaOfWoozalia] and maple syrple
[MadKatter] You already did that, Sor! Don't you remember? Just before you got...
[HarenaOfWoozalia] *eyes get glazed look*
[MadKatter] AMNESIA
[MadKatter] DUN DUN DUNNN
[MadKatter] *credits*

(Edited to fix format)

Yep another last minute party announcement. I'm back from the Russos run. Let the festivities begin. Feel free to bring guests. BYO Grillables and Beverages. Grill provided. I dont have so many outdoor chairs so bring your own chairs too.


61 Grove St #1 Belmont
617.650.2003