CBS is one sorry network

Posted on February 16, 2004 by Solonor

CBS responded to our complaints and apologized for the Grammy Awards.

Oh, ok, I know it wasn’t because of us. It was because certain people didn’t think Outkast’s performance of “Hey Ya!” presented them in a favorable light. Because, you know, it’s really hard to get over a damning stereotype like a bevy of multiracial go-go girls in Emerald City garb dancing to a marching band. I know it really warped my sense of their culture. I’ll never look at another exhibit of Native American art without thinking, “Boy, dem Injuns shore can dance!”

Puh-leeze.

[ via -d ]

Posted in Rants 'n' Whines | 4 Comments

Sell it, baby.

Posted on February 15, 2004 by Solonor

We were practically childless today, so we decided to paint the town puce. Yeah, baby. We hit three bookstores, had seafood (fried) and cheesecake. We so bad.

While we were out wandering, we had the opportunity to witness once again the disturbing fashion trend of ass-labels (you know, cute little sayings embroidered or otherwise emblazoned across the backside of a young hottie).

ME: Heh. Look. She’s got “JUICY” printed on her butt.
HER: Some Imodium would clear that up.
ME: Ewwww.
HER: Oh, you don’t think that’s what she meant?
ME: Not really.
HER: Well, then she should at least have the courtesy to print her prices there, too.

Yeah, we’re judgmental. One of the good things about getting old–you get to be crotchety.

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 7 Comments

Feel the Love

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Solonor

Jozzy is wicked excited, because her friends are in line to be married!

They’re part of a huge line of people that are backed up at the courhouse for some strange reason. So, she’s blogging their wait step-by-step.

She would like it muchly, if you would all go over and wish the happy couple congratulations.

Posted in Wouldya Lookit That! | 6 Comments

The way to a woman’s heart

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Solonor

Come closer, guys, and I’ll tell you the secret of making your woman happy on Valentine’s Day.

While she’s off volunteering to sit with a gaggle of Girl Scouts at a cookie booth…

Continue reading →

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 3 Comments

Curse? What curse?

Posted on February 14, 2004 by Solonor

Hey, while you’re back there, could ya twist the knife a little for me? Thanks.

Newsday.com – Rodriguez Answer At Third? Yanks, Rangers discuss deal that would send Sori to Texas

Posted in Baseball | 5 Comments

More Ultimate Rock CD

Posted on February 12, 2004 by Solonor

Apparently, I am not the only list-loving geek on the planet.

In response to Domino’s call for a rockin’ party CD, the readers of this and Michele’s blog came up with tons of suggestions. Today, I got e-mailed a doc where he compiled all of the lists and ranked them by the songs and artists that were most often mentioned. It’s really a fascinating list, given that the parameters were just to come up with some good rock party tunes and not to figure out “the greatest rock song ever”. I’ll try to make a PDF out of it and make it available for download.

Turns out the “World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band” has still got it. Out of 565 songs named, the Rolling Stones were tagged 13 times. AC/DC came in second with 12, including the song most often listed–“Back in Black”.

The top 10 bands listed:

  1. The Rolling Stones (13)
  2. AC/DC (12)
  3. The Beatles (10)
  4. Led Zeppelin (9)
  5. Van Halen (9)
  6. The Clash (8)
  7. Guns N’Roses (8)
  8. Metallica (7)
  9. The Ramones (7)
  10. Rush (7)

The top songs listed (more than 2 mentions):

  1. Back in Black (AC/DC)
  2. Enter Sandman (Metallica)
  3. I Heard Her Call My Name (Velvet Underground)
  4. I Wanna Be Sedated (The Ramones)
  5. London Calling (The Clash)
  6. Paradise City (Guns N’Roses)
  7. Synchronicity II (The Police)
  8. Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N’Roses)
Posted in Blogcritics, Tunes | 7 Comments

One Step Closer…

Posted on February 11, 2004 by Solonor

Make sure you run your Windows Update, kids. It’ll behoove ya.

“Microsoft released a patch for Windows on Tuesday that fixed one of the most severe security holes ever found in the operating system.” – ZDNet UK – News – EEye: More Microsoft bugs on the way

One step closer to the most secure operating system on the planet… and to getting my lazy butt off Microsoft products. I’ve already switched my Office apps to Open Office, my e-mail client from Outlook to Thunderbird and am leaning toward dumping IE in favor of Firefox. And, believe it or not, it’s not just because I’m cheap. Microsoft is hauling its customers away in a chauffeur-driving limousine with antics like holding onto a security vulnerability for 200 days before releasing a patch.

Now, if I can just get OOTP to run on Linux, I’ll be all set.

Posted in Yo! Listen Up! | 5 Comments

Referrer Spam

Posted on February 11, 2004 by Solonor

This morning’s little project was editing my htaccess file to try to block a little referrer spammage. I know I’ve been hit by folks scraping the content off my site (hello IAEA!) and by bots (hello bloogz!), but I never bothered before, partly because it didn’t seem like such a big deal, mostly because I’m lazy. But for the past week or so the darn referrer list has been filled with a ton of spam urls, all coming from shawcable.net, and it’s ticking me off.

I use the Textism Refer utility as a quick reminder of who’s visiting me, so I can visit them. I’m tired of having to weed through a bazillion url’s about janet’s boobs, paris hilton, free teen lesbian sex, free milf pics, casino gambling and drugs in order to see if Geekman is still alive and visiting. If I want any of that stuff, I’ll just go to his site!

So, armed with this handy-dandy tip from weblog wannabe and a nifty tutorial on htaccess, I made my feeble attempt denying at access to them. I also turned on hotlink protection for the first time. Soon I will block search engines and all traffic from bots. Then, I’ll make this a password-protected site, and I shall have my own little quiet piece of the Internet where nobody can find me.

UPDATE: Another simply elegant solution comes from By Sand and Sea. Change the default page location for the referrer log! Duh. Thanks Brian!

Posted in Rants 'n' Whines | 8 Comments

You wish you were me, don’tcha?

Posted on February 10, 2004 by Solonor

Ohhh yeahhhh…

I just got tickets so me an’ my two homies can go see Flogging Molly at the House of Blues.

Let the pitiful whines of envy begin.

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything, Tunes | 3 Comments

With help like this…

Posted on February 10, 2004 by Solonor

Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.

Silly auto worker.
Your job didn’t go to Mexico for nothing. It’s to help the economy!

Silly textile worker.
Quit whining about trying to feed your family, now that your job’s gone to Korea and you have to make ends meet by working at McDonald’s. At least your taxes went down!

Silly IT worker.
Don’t you know how much smarter they are in India? Of course, we had to move your job to Delhi. Get with the program! (Sorry about the pun, though.)

Unemployment is progress. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Posted in Rants 'n' Whines | 5 Comments