Offline by mood 2005

Yeah, I'm not answering mail much right now, not spending much time in chat, not posting much. Partly busy at work, partly just not feeling very social, partly doing offline things. Don't take it personally.

Support the people you care about 2005

One thing I'm doing more of is buying from friends. Tonight I bought a year's supply of hosting from Textdrive. For one thing it costs half what I've been paying the admittedly excellent folk of Hurricane Electric who have hosted this site for much of its life. For another it's the project of my friend-I've-never-met Dean Allen, whose dogs I look at every day.

One thing I unfortunately did not realize is that their interface is as cryptic to me as Hurricane Electric's and I'll have to get a sysadmin friend to help me actually set up mail and migrate my domain. It's a good thing I know geeks and they like home cooked meals...

Several minutes later now I think maybe the domain name server change is automatically going to happen and mail may just start working except that I now need to change my mail program to go to the right place and put up a redirect page to go to the TypePad site and that means I shouldn't have an automatic DNS redirect because all I really need hosting for is mail service and I've bought TextDrive hosting because it's becoming apparent that Six Apart aren't going to get around to it anytime soon and god damn but I hate managing this crap.

***

No, wait, I'm wrong. The switch doesn't happen until I tell my registrar to look to a different DNS server. Okay. Good. This is less daunting now.

Gmail Tip: Report Phishing 2005

Got a Gmail account?*  Ever get those messages like "We here at Washinton Mutual/CitiBank/EBay/PayPal/etc have discovered a potential threat to your account security and need you to log in and reconfirm your information such as social security number"? And there's a link that looks perfectly legitimate, except if you view source on the HTML message you realize all the text in the message including the link is an image which actually links to some server in the Ukraine? And the message was addressed to your junk@mydomain account instead of to the washingtonmutual@mydomain you listed on your checking account application? Or maybe it's just as simple as the fact you don't even have an account with that company which tips you off that this is not a legitimate request for your personal information.

Take a moment to slap these scam artists. In Gmail, while viewing the message, click "Show options", then click "Report phishing", then click the "Report spam" button. The message is now out of your hair and Google's unblinking eye is turning towards the scumwads who deserve a little extra attention.

When they're assholes trying to rip people off, it's not snitching, it's just giving natural selection a helping hand. Spamming and phishing are not socially acceptable behavior.

*If not, and you want one, email metagrrrl@ and I'll send you an invite.

Spend in accordance with your values 2005

MetaGrrrl is anti-sweatshop. I just bought a bunch of great shirts and some nice plain cotton thermal underwear (which seems to have gotten oddly hard to find elsewhere) from American Apparel. I encourage you to visit one of their stores. The people are nice, the colors are beautiful and the retail outlets often have stuff that's not in the online catalog yet. (Unfortunately, that includes the thermal pants, so my quest for pink ones in my size continues...)

43 things worth doing 2005

My part-time housemate Shannon just introduced me to 43 Things. It's a wonderful site for talking about your goals and dreams. Very cool, very encouraging.

I've already added 20 things to my list.

A ramble through the garden of the web 2005

Push open the gate and stroll along to Technorati, turn down a promising path to the tag "Weather", notice a wonderful blog name and end at the article which inspired it: "When Knitting Was A Manly Art".

The magic of fresh fruit and vegetables 2005

I feel better now.

Wow, I feel a lot better.

I had a nice chicken tamale for dinner, which was good, but I also had an apple and a big dish of broccoli with fresh Meyer lemon juice on it. Fresh organic produce rules!

I got my first delivery from Organic Express tonight and it is some mighty good looking and tasty produce, I gotta tell ya. Tomorrow I can have a banana in the morning and take an apple and a pear to work and maybe some celery. This is gonna be great.

Clearly my body has decided to kick out the pleasure chemicals to get me to keep eating right. :)

Inauguration Day 2005

That was actually a good speech. Too much God in it, of course, but I expect that from national politics in the U.S. The freedom note was definitely struck and struck well.

The sad thing is that I don't think Bush really, truly believes it, or at least understands it very differently than I do. I don't think his administration wants the kind of "force of human freedom" which could take away their power.

The bad thing is that horseshit about an "ownership society". You know what "making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny" means? No safety net. You're on your own, sucker. Better hope daddy was rich. Better hope you live in a rich neighborhood or you won't have what some people have.

Listen to that phrase "ownership society". A country built on property. On commerce.

Yeah, Bush, well own this: you lied to us. You got us into a war and thousands died because of your deliberate lies.

"In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character, on integrity and tolerance toward others and the rule of conscience in our own lives."

Hello?

I gotta go get some dinner now before the hypocrisy makes me sick.

I need this. 2005

My friend Kellie has a new business: Girlgear Industries.

I am definitely going to be ordering her first product


Kickass!

A, A, A is for Awesome 2005

I adore the video which Arlo*'s Uncle Liam made for him and which is currently the latest post at Jenville.com.

Now I need the MP3. "Helloooo"

(I predict singing in the halls of SXSW when the fabulous Robbins family arrives.)

*Cutest. Baby. Ever.

Elsewhere 2005

No posts from Dinah all week? What's going on?

Well, reading a book (The Eyre Affair, which Kristin recommended), watching the extended versions of The Two Towers and Return of the King with some bunny, playing Kingdom of Loathing (now level 13, go me!), getting ready for my new part-time roomie Shannon to arrive, and working on Bloggers Without Borders (mostly fixing small typos and pestering Jonas with suggestions and questions).

Wine of the Day 2005

Bridgeway Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

Pretty tasty. (And here's a nice review. I don't get the licorice or the dustiness, but the rest is right on the mark.)

Cheese of the Day 2005

I finished this last night, actually, but it was too excellent not to mention.

Italian caciotta del lazio sheep milk/pecorino fresco.

Rainbow Grocery had it with a sign warning they probably wouldn't be able to get it again. It's a darn fine snacking cheese.