Flummel, Flummer, Flummo WeBLog

Good-bye TypePad

Dear TypePad,

Thank you for inviting me to your BetaParty. It's been lots of fun and I'm a bit sad to leave you, in fact, I feel like the kid who chooses to graduate early, but is sad about missing the prom. Depart I must.

You are the first blogger tool I've ever used and after some initial hesitations, I've been impressed. I miss the flexibility I have when I do my own coding, but you are an outstanding substitute, even in the low rent district where I played with you.

I'm leaving because I don't think I can justify your monthly fee, not when I own my own domain elsewhere and pay for hosting.

I will tell others about you and the most excellent professionalism of Ben and Mena Trott and of course Anil Dash. I will tell them that your interface is simple and you offer lots of bang for the buck and I will tell them if I was a newbie, you are the place I'd go.

So, TypePad, continue to encourage the diversity that blogging offers and continue to support your users. I wish you only well.

Your friend,
Karan of Flummel

PS If you want to come visit me, I'll be at www.flummel.com.
Later gator.

Don't Be Distracted

But first a distraction....my new multi-vitamins make me sneeze. I don't sneeze when I take them and aside from yellowier pee, they don't seem to cause any internal reaction. When I smell them, I sneeze. How odd.

And now back to the show.....

I listened to the Cowboy's press conference and as usual it was a difficult viewing. I just don't like the man. I could not have been friends with him in high school or college and I would have tried to talk my boss out of hiring him. He's just icky.

As soon as the reporter asked the question about gay marriage, my radar went haywire....not because of what the Cowboy said, but because I immediately thought....here it goes, the great distraction. And, I can't believe that the country is apparently falling for it.

Exactly what is the big surprise? Was there one person in the US who thought that the Cowboy felt differently about this? Doesn't anybody question the timing?

Just when the fire was getting turned up under the Cowboy and his administration and as the masses were starting to wonder if he did manufacture the evidence to promote the invasion of Iraq, he drops this bundle on the press. Don't think for a minute that the timing with the Vatican's announcement was coincidental!

He tried an end run first with that tax refund, but that didn't raise much dust. So he and his goonies must have had to come up with a bigger play.

I'll betcha that while GW was polishing his saddle; they sat in that oval office conference room and debated what issue just might bump the accountability problem off the front page. I'll bet they talked about abortion and the space program and drilling in Alaska and decided that gay marriage was shocking and controversial enough to grab lots of attention, but not so hot that it would alienate most of America like abortion might.

It's working. Newspapers, TV, and the Internet is chatting wildly about gay marriage and this whole codify thing. Egad....think about it before the Cowboy spoke...last week, did any one think that he was thinking that he needed to make his stance clear about this whole homosexual marriage thing. My guess, is that not one rational thinker was in that space.

The Cowboy doesn't give a shit about gay marriage. The Cowboy does give a shit about getting caught.

In other words, hey folks, nothing new here! Let's get back to the questions about Iraq and those "missing" weapons of mass destruction.

8:41 pm

Those errant IPs are once again recognized by my ISP! Feel free to visit my real web site. It's not so betarized as this one.

Daisy is my new best friend

What a sweetie! Thanks!

I'm beginning to feel hopeful....

These last few weeks, I've had moments of actual glee...that is, in regard to that dufus Cowboy in Washington. I'm thinking that it might just be possible that he won't be a shoo-in for the 2004 election....I'm thinking just as he bashed in world support resulting from Sept. 11th, he is condemning his national support for his own candidacy!

Please Jean-Luc, make it so!!

It is July 26, 2003 and

Generalísimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

Farewell Day and DNS Wars

My family is on the road...headed off to two weeks in sun and surf. I already miss them and as I've mentioned before, because I'm omnipotent, I worry when I'm not with them.

My real web site is also on vacation...an involuntary break that has me gnashing my teeth. It seems that for some arbitrary reason, Comcast decided that it won't recognize DNS servers with 203.194(etc.) IP numbers, DNS servers which include the company hosting my domain. It started on Thursday and continues through to today.

I'm pretending that I'm still publishing there on a regular basis and have continued to write WeBLog entries...so far, three to a missing readership. How fun is that?

At least I can pretend here, in betaland.

Hey You....I Hate You

With a flat palm slap to my forehead, I suddenly realized that the reason spam and telemarketing exists is because, duh, it works.

All this time I've been wasting my blood boiling hatred on the wrong side of the coin. All this time I continued to curse the gene pool of those who call me all day long with promises of free siding and half-priced windshields. I've cursed the very breath of those spammers who promise me a longer wider penis and those who want to sell me enough Viagra to make all that penis growth worthwhile.

Wrong...oh so wrong.

I am reborn, a new woman. From this point forward, I will direct my wrath, my curses and my spewing hatred toward those who really make it happen .... those flippin' idiots who say yes and willingly read off those sixteen digits to complete strangers on the telephone with the hopes of winning more in the big drawing. I will now mentally strangle everyone of those thickheaded dolts who click the 'tell me more' button in their email box and decide beyond reason that they've just got to get that refinancing for their home mortgage or who fully expect that new thermogenic HGH powered weight loss potion to do the trick.

Never mind that the subject header, the sender and the product are lies. Never mind that the same ad appears in your email box no fewer than 238 times each day. And, never mind that it's all an inveracity. So go ahead and sign up, sign on, sign in, they are waiting for you because you are dimwitted. If that princess in Africa wants you to hide her millions for her, go right ahead because you are a mentally obtuse defective and she knows it. You, you blockhead, are gullible. You are an easy mark.

I'm writing this now not to tell that telemarketer to bug off, not to reply to emailers to go fry themselves, but today, just for you who say yes, you hebetudinous throw-backs, I want you to know that...

I HATE YOU

Animals in the News

Sealus Endus

Sad news from Antarctica where a leopard seal hauled a scientist down into the deep and to her death. Aside from this fatal attack, the leopard seal is actually a rather fascinating creature sporting leg-like flippers rather than the fin like flippers found on other seals. This velociraptor-jawed monster of the seal set is a little understood predator, usually hunting Adelie penguin and fish. There have been other attacks on humans including one by documented by Ernest Shackleton during his ill-fated Trans-Antarctica expedition. My advice, don't look edible.

Minnie Canis Snifficus

Today, Minnie, a 2-year-old German shepherd from Olympia, tracked down a missing two year old boy, lost in the woods near here for almost 24 hours. In woods where people worry about bears and cougars, this little boy was very lucky and this young German shepherd did a fine job! Hooray for Minnie! Hooray for the kid!

Ursus Purplis

A bear was given an undisclosed treatment for a skin condition which turned her purple. She is expected to return to her normal creamy color (which is a lie because polar bear hair is really transparent). I have my suspicions about that secret treatment. When humans have yeasty skin troubles, like when LC had thrush, a traditional remedy is gentian violet, the stain, not the band. Gentian violet temporarily tints human skin purple and it is quite lovely! I liked LC's mouth purple and I think I like my polar bears purple too!

Plasticus Floatus

It was announced this week that the plastic floaty toys that fell overboard eleven years ago would finally make landfall .... somewhere along the eastern seaboard. 29,000 ducks, beavers, turtles, and frogs have been adrift floating to and fro, fro and to. This link makes an executable file simulation available that demonstrates the path the rubber floaties have taken. The files are quite safe and it's OK to just open them watch the animation. It opens a black background window and when you're done viewing it, just press ESC. I've opened all the files on the page and my computer is just as sound as ever. This weekend, I'm off to do some beachcombing and maybe, if I'm lucky, a little salt parched rubber duck will be there waiting for me.

Earthwormus Invadeus Amukus

Some 10,000 years after the glaciers graciously scraped away most of our native earthworms, Asian and European earthworms are now running rampent through our eastern forests, well not running as in with feet, more like crawling and chomping their way as they go. Not only are these slimy denizens of the soil thriving, they are chomping through the forest floor and destroying the nutrient rich decay that feeds native plants and trees allowing invader species to take over. Miss Martha, this is not a good thing.

Swearing

I like to swear. It amuses me. I wish I was good at it. My goal is to swear as good as my grandmother did.