We be back

...and here we are. Home at last.

All in all, it was a good week. But it's definitely been a lot of travel this year. Next up: Florida...

Barbarians at the Grate - the death of blogging?

Interesting article about blog spam. I actually disagree with Jack's prediction because I think that Blogger has done a fantastic job of combatting blog spam. Far better than my ISP has done for my email, I should point out.

=================================
From The Globe and Mail
Jack Kapica

It had to happen: Spammers, always looking for a new way to clog your mental arteries, are now major players in blogging.

They find a blog, then start exploiting the ability for posting "comment spam," ads masquerading as comments to blog items.

The situation became unbearable after Google's BlogSpot, which offered people the ability to set up free blogs. It wasn't long before spammers discovered this: These guys are always looking for a big chance. And it revealed a terrible flaw in Google's thinking: How could such a large and supposedly venerable company not understand that their product would attract spammers?

What's really interesting is that yet another technological craze has been crippled by spammers. Their comment spam — it even has a name now, "splogging" — is rapidly pouring cold water on blogging enthusiasts.

And soon, blogging should become another marginal activity, like posting to Usenet groups, which no one seems to be interested in doing any more.

E-Mail Jack Kapica at jkapica@globeandmail.ca

Posted Oct. 26, 2005, at 12 p.m.

Dude, Where's My PI?

Ya know, Larry...your affection for my wife is, well...well known. And I know you're keen on hanging out with her. I'm okay with this. Honest. I mean, you're a cool guy, pretty funny. Kind of like a little brother I wish I had.

However...

We were looking out the hotel window (kick-ass view from the 32nd floor, btw) and we couldn't help but notice that you decided to tag along for the trip.

Dude: next time, just ask, k?? Kristin asked...and she's here. Causing nooooooo trouble whatsoever. (I almost managed to type that with a straight face, even.)

(Kristin: Deny, deny, deny...)

We had our suspicions when we first looked outside.






















But our suspicions were confirmed when we looked outside later.

























Larry: we're in 3206. Come on up for a beer. Just keep your hands to yourself.

Left Coast Dispatch

(I will preface this post by saying that I am highly pissed at having to re-type the entry because WebTV didn't like one of my keystrokes.)

Greetings from Beautiful British Columbia!!

This blog update is being brought to you by the magic of WebTV because my laptop didn't want to make nice with the hotel's highspeed network. In spite of the fact that I can blog from my bed with a wireless keyboard, I don't feel transformed by WebTV in the slightest.

DW and I have had a surprisingly full couple of days. The flight was lengthy but uneventful (DW says that's the way they should be) and we arrived ON TIME. Y'know, you always hear about these things, but you're not sure if they're really true stories.

I got in touch with my Aunt H. who, through familial contacts, managed to obtain tickets to the football game the night we arrived. DW and I took a little time to unwind prior to meeting Aunt H., R and Big "A" at their pre-game hang out (Big A being a retired football player from that same team and one of my childhood heroes).

The game itself was a somewhat lopsided affair, (final score was 41-1 for the good guys) including a rather touching salute to Veterans at halftime that had DW and I nearly in tears. Amazing Grace with a mixd bras and pipe band gets us everytime.

The game didn't end until after 10 and, keep in mind, this was local time. For our travel weary bodies, it was 1 a.m. Poor DW was nodding off during the fourth quarter and if it wasn't for the cotton candy she hoovered down for the sugar rush, she wouldn't have made it. Steph, sometimes the cotton candy guy can be your friend. We ended up back at the pub with the family, including a couple of cousins that I hadn't seen since they were preteens. One is now practising law. Ouch.

By 11:30 local time, my wife looked like she could win the lead in "Night of the Living Dead", so we walked the mile or so back to the hotel (in the ever-present drizzle) and crashed. DW spent five minutes telling me how she couldn't fall asleep, and within another five minutes, I had to pry her Su Doku book and pencil from her hands as she was snoring her way through her first puzzle of the night.

I am deliciously pleased to state we slept in until 9:30 local time. That's right, boys and girls, that means we slept until 12:30 EST. For DW and I, sleeping in usually means getting up at 7:30 instead of 5:30. This sleep was beyond decadent. I wanted to call Reuters, but they weren't available to take the story.

We spent this morning the way we usually spend our vacations: walking and visiting museums. We visited the Vancouver Maritime Museum (which doesn't hold a candle to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, I'm afraid) and the Vancouver Museum. We walked back to the hotel, changed and headed out to North Vancouver for dinner with the aforementioned rellies. A wonderful time was had by all (as was roast beef with yorkshire pudding, veggies and bumbleberry pie). *Burp*

Did I mention the pie?

Now, we're back in the hotel and while I iron my clothes for the conference tomorrow, DW is sitting topless on the bed, typing this for me.

It doesn't get much better than wireless tv blogging and topless wife typing (DW: I must really love him to let him say that).

Until later.

Mobile Moss

DW and I are enjoying our pre-clearance wait in the brand new Terminal 1 before our flight to Vancouver. A very nice space, as far as airport architecture goes. Definitely a bright and airy place to wait out the time before boarding.

Yours truly is on his way to an e-learning conference. The only reason I'm going is that I am actually giving a brief presentation on some of our successes from work. DW is joining me again and we're looking forward to another week away. We're also hoping to meet with Kristin while we're there. Her pregnancy permitting, she's gonna do a day trip and hang with us for a while.

I love Vancouver, but I hate the flight there. Nearly 5hrs gate to gate. That, dear readers, makes for a long-ass day when you factor in the time change, and the waits at both ends.

Boarding calls. More later. DW says hi, too. :)

Self Tag: A Life in Google Photos

Even though I wasn't specifically tagged (and, therefore, cannot tag anyone else) I thought this might be interesting, particularly with the great job Kal did with his.

Town Where I Was Born:

Town Where I Grew Up:


Where I live Now:


Nom du Blog:


My Real Name:

(Oh I had a lot of fun with this one...should mess a lot of people up)

My Two Grandmothers:


(don't ask how I got that last one)

My Favourite Food:


My Favourite Song:
Crap....I totally can't pick just one, but...


My Favourite Smell:


There ya go...

Especially for Danikabur...

As promised, Dani, this one is just for you.

Spam Sender Name of the Week

Parthenogenesis E. Engulfing - offering "Exceptional deals for medication on our site...."

Yikes...

There.was.frost.on.my.car.this.morning.

*blink, blink*

Shameless Meme Theft

Courtesy of my DW, I'm adding this meme (no, I'm not Posting The Cat.)

All you do is go to Google and type in your name and the word needs in quotes (e.g. "Mossy needs")

Like DW, I did this with my real name, but have substituted "Mossy" in here.

Mossy Needs a Chick. (Yep, came up #1 here as it did with DW. I already have one, tyvm)

Mossy Needs some Director Help

Mossy Needs Help (I know a lot of people who would agree with that)

Mossy Needs Oak Ridge Information (I do??)

Mossy Needs Amanda Buttram (*snicker* You said 'butt')

Mossy needs to present these views in a TV News report on BBC ONE (oooh...BBC? Way Cool! I say, Brain...whatever shall we do tonight? The same thing we do every night, Pinky old chap....)

Mossy needs to be reconciled. (I do? Who un-reconciled me?)

Mossy needs a Harvard scholarship (Whoa! DUDE! Gimme!)

Mossy needs more room (Damn straight...need more room for POWER TOOLS!)

Mossy needs two pieces of network delivery information. (um, okay...)

Mossy needs to get these made up. Probably will have to start from scratch but ... Mossy needs to get logbooks for the executive by next meeting ... (Who nominated me?)

Mossy needs to consume at least 1750 calories per day to maintain his ... 5) Mossy needs to lose 15 pounds in 90 days. Since walking still consumes 350 ... (okay, oKAY...I get the hint!)

Mossy needs to be distinctive. (Yeah, baby! But I thought I was already??)

The Truth about Cats and Blogs

I saw this article during my daily canon of news reads. Thought it was too funny not to share.

By IVOR TOSSELL
Friday, October 14, 2005 Posted at 9:11 AM EDT
From Friday's Globe and Mail

Poor cats. There's an Internet full of the things, but little do they know the joke's on them.
I got to mulling the strange popularity of cats in the ether when I discovered that a spate of bloggers had declared it "Blogacatmas," the festival of posting cats on weblogs. There was a flash of fur, cats everywhere, and then it was over. Another week, you sigh, another outbreak of nerd humour on the Internet. But these people are onto something.

There's a stereotype that goes like this: When somebody running a website has run out of useful things to say, they post a picture of their cat. When they don't feel like writing one thousand words on their blog, there's always the option of posting Fluffy and pretending that she's somehow of interest to anybody. When the boiler of thought is out of steam, out wheezes a kitten.

Perhaps the stereotype was undeserved, but it stuck. In a gently self-mocking way, putting up pictures of cats has become the quintessential blogging gesture. And the cat, for its part, became the patron saint of tired websites.

Which leads us to the cabal of young on-line writers in Canada who are pushing the phrase "posting the cat" to describe the moment when a website passes its prime.

Coined by arts writer and blogger J. Kelly Nestruck (of fence.blogspot.com), the phrase takes its cue from the saying that TV shows "jump the shark" and decline at the moment they display a certain desperation (the prime example being when Fonzie was made to water-ski over a shark on Happy Days; everything was downhill from there). So, too, with websites, Nestruck says.
"The truth is that most blogs are just personal vanity projects of little consequence, the Internet equivalent of Christmas newsletters," Nestruck says. "And nothing pulls the curtain back and reveals that dirty truth more than when a blogger posts a picture of his or her cat."

Indeed, "posting the cat" can refer to any kind of desperate mistake, even ones that don't involve cats at all. For instance, it can mean banning reader comments from your weblog, alienating your users. It can mean prompting the departure of a flamboyant character from a discussion forum, leaving the place limp.

Or posting the cat can mean just that. In the depths of the CBC lockout, the somnambulant cbc.ca website actually posted a kitten as its front-page photo. Management had posted the cat. There are a lot of ways to ruin a website, but you can't beat the real thing.

None of which reflects too well on the cat, either. Even the celebratory Blogacatmas's co-founder, Joey deVilla, says he doesn't even really like the things. "I'm really a dog person," deVilla says in an e-mail message. "I'm allergic to cats; I'm not too keen on their general temperament."

His celebration, it seems, was more a salute to the Internet's tradition of putting up silly pictures of cats than to the cats themselves. What success cats have enjoyed on-line (see the bizarro Infinite Cat Project at http://www.infinitecat.com/) is mostly thanks to their unrivalled knack for looking angry and aggressively confused.

Critics have argued -- and critics do argue about things such as cats on the Internet -- that there's a resonance between the rangy, self-reliant mentality of the cat, and the fiercely independent, stand-offish blogger or programmer. I don't buy it. The truth about cats and blogs is that it's an in-joke. On the Internet, cats are emptiness incarnate, and everyone knows it -- except the poor cat.

A quick word about "jumping the shark:" The widely used phrase actually originated on-line, at a website called http://www.jumptheshark.com/. It contains a full database of television shows, and thousands of user-submitted votes on precisely when each show took the leap and started getting bad. If that sounds grim, note that there are provisions for shows that "never jumped" (or have yet to peak), and shows that "jumped back." The shark metaphor is accommodating that way; I'm not sure about the logistics of un-posting a cat.

Freewrite

Bigotry and hockey and baseless allegations from knuckleheads sully an otherwise restful evening. Sanity's askings are too much for some but those thoughts never darken me. Darkened mornings and cooler temperatures herald the true end of another summer and the lingering lie of fall before winter arrives. Snowfalls and slush piles and salted driveways. Yech. Unwritten novels fill my mind, yearning to be written but fall short of reaching the pen. Where lies that disconnect? Maybe my fingers won't reach. Reach for the sky, and you can fly even with no legs and be a real dogsbody. Reach for the stars or you'll never leave the ground. Reach for the last beer and risk a serious thumping. Thumper really was an annoying little furball. Fur flies but only as part of the squirrell. Does anyone know what a squirrel, a sponge and a starfish have in common? Me either, but they all seem to be very happy together. Go figure. Weekday morning sleep-ins and spousal snuggles wipe away the stress and madness of the work week...no better perscription exists. Was Shakespeare really an existentialist? To be or not to be? If not to be, then what? What to ask, what to say, how to love and to be loved. Loving the one you're with might irk the one you love and is generally a poor move. Be more worthy. Images and words from a theatre of dreams keep pulling me under but I do love taking the time. ....and time and time again. Time never waits and time never ends.

(See what 90's prog rock does to me in the mornings? No Hypnerotomachia here, folks...no Rule of Four. I just want to see the flow of babble....I must be wanting a career in Politics)

Hump Day Babblings

It was definitely one of the longer days that The Stoney one had down at the quarry. Mr. Slate was at his best today, doing his best to drag down my morale. I regret that he succeeded.

I'll do my best to avoid getting dooced, but when one's boss is noting the downward effect of the staff meeting on all employees, you know it was a bad one.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel (its my blog and I'll mix and massacre the metaphors if I wanna). I get to spend tomorrow with DW and we are absolutely kidless. I am working from home and DW hasn't been slated to work, and you have *no* idea how much we are looking forward to it. We haven't had a real weekday to ourselves in biff-knows-how-long and its long overdue. We both need some recharge time and some "us" time. It seems like we've been go-go-go for the last little while and life is just getting in the way.

Personally, I feel a little drained today. I feel like work has me running on autopilot and I can't find the off switch. I miss some of the relative sanity that came with some of my jobs, even t:ough I really love what I'm doing now...I guess the bullshit quotient is a little high.

Just for fun, my old friend, excema, is making a comeback. I've had this since I was a teen and my doctor figured I'd grow out of it at some point. Big E is usually a stress indicator although its spread is a lot less extensive than it used to be, and at least its confined to my hands. The Boy gets it on his legs and I know I'd be driven right fucken squirrely if I had it there. Weird thing: it always starts on the inside of my left ring finger, on the side facing my gesturing/driving digit. Don't ask me why, but that's always where it starts.

Okay, enough bodily affliction woes. There's a good day to look forward to tomorow. Keep smilin'!!

~sniffle~

I'm renewing my love-hate relationship with kleenex. I really wish I could shake this head cold, but so far: no dice. I'll spare you the bulk of the gory details, but my nose has no interest in further contact with facial tissues, tyvm...in spite of the overwhelming influence of my sinuses.

DW is suffering in her own way at home. She's got a killer headache and she'll have to manage a bunch of kid chores because I'm not getting home as early as I thought. We're both definitely in need of some down time and "us" time.

No other big news...just needed to rant a bit.

Happy Birthday Danikabur!

Happiest of Birthdays, hun.

May you have many more, and may you look younger every year. ;-)

Woody Prayers and Pleadings

In the name of the saw blade, the the screwdriver and the holy drill bit...

There's no greater frustration than wanting to be out in my semi-organized garage on the middle day of a long weekend generating copious amounts of sawdust and being less-than-free to do so.

The day absolutely cries out for it. My spirit longs to hear the soothing whine and screech of wood as it shatters the silence of a complacent suburbia. Yea, though it is lovingly sawn and ripped apart by a sharp blade, attached to a high-powered motor, I remain faithful to you, my Gods and Goddesses, as I ignore the temptations of the heathens and the infidels who tempt me with other offerings if I would only close that damned garage door...

I faithfully make my novenas and hosannas to you...silently chanting to my favourite deities of the craft...Ryobi, Japanese goddess of the table saw, drill press and belt sander...Delta, the greek god of the band saw and compound mitre saw...DeWalt, pagan Frankish god of the hand router and drill/driver...not forgetting the lesser, faceless demi-gods of the circular saw with laser, 1/2" router and the 1/4" router and router table...

My soul needs to be sated with the benevolent work of creating something in your name from multi-layered, laminated cellulose. These offerings sit below the altar of my workbench...un-blessed...un-used...un-cut?? I am shamed at my sins.

Why am I denied this simplest of pleasures?

I mean, is the worship of this pantheon of sawdust such a crime? Am I in some kind of tortured hell? Will all of Dante's woodworking demons torment me mercilessly with visions of nefariously clever projects in progress, knowing that I am shackled to the wall of festive and mechanical reality? I beseech you, mighty gods and goddesses...I have studied relevant passages of scripture from ShopNotes 12:77, Canadian Home Workshop 3:12, and all the lessons in Bob Vila's letters to the Philistines at PBS. Your Prophets like Norm Abrams and the Apostles on This Old House have been particularly inspirational of late.

Oh, the humanity!

Dude! What the hell are you talking about, are you, like, in jail or something? Is there an emergency?

No! My fucking band saw is broken!!

One tiny little part is holding me back, Gods and Goddesses. I mean, I suppose I *could* run the saw without the liner on the upper wheel, but I'd rather not chance it. Would I offend thee by such apostacy? One stupid little piece of nylon/plastic that sits on the wheel split at some point, rendering the whole thing useless. Of course, I figured that a little piece of plastic would be cheap. Um, no. The price for that "tire"? $44 CDN. Jeebus... HERESY!! And, yea, even though I have prayed ferverently at your taberbnacle at the Home Depot, my prayers went unfulfilled. Only a divine intervention would cure what ailed me, their priests said.

Now, Gods and Goddesses, I do have some other tools I could use and I suppose I could maybe work some other wood I have lying around (stacked in a pleasing fashion) by building a prototype of the second generation hockey equipment stand that your unworthy, The Nature Boy, and I were talking about. I mean, he'd make that icon part of his own altar to worship and appreciate your glory! He even thinks such an icon would help to spread your word in that fertile land of the American Mid-West. He seems to think people already know something about wood down there. How could you deny me?

So, is it too much to ask that you send down some kind of thunderbolt/thundersplinter and let the Delta Service Center in Pickering be open today? Please? PLEASE??? I promise to build a shrine worthy of your worship if you grant me that favour. I really really really really really really really really really really really really wanted my band saw this weekend.

This must be some kind of test. May you find me worthy of this challenge.

For ever and ever,

Amen

Audioblog, here we come!

There ya go, sports fans...the first one is done. I'm sure I'll be beseiged with requests to cease and desist. ;-)

I'd like to thank the Academy...

...my agent, my publicist, my therapist, my pharmacist, my psychic...

Just kidding, folks.

I'm pleased to note that I have joined the ranks of the Brilliant Bloggers! My 'Where's Steph?/Steph Sightings' saga won for "Best Series".

Many thanks to all who voted, and to Larry for his Chicken/Cotton Candy/Baseball contributions, to Steph for being the catalyst and all-round good sport, and to DW for indulging my desire to blog.

Big kudos to MarriedMan and his Honourable Mention for "Les Miserablogs". It's WAY out there, but definitely funny.

Friday's Feckless Meanderings: Tired and sick, not necessarily sick and tired

Ya know, I used to be able to shake off colds & flu and other associated ailments and keep working, but as I get older I'm discovering that they take more and more out of me.

I'm actually in at the office today because I was supposed to have a teaching assignment at one of our other locations, however, an urgent training issue arose for another project, so I bounced myself out of the timeslot. Unfortunately, this messed up my schedule a bit. Even though I'm still feeling under the weather, I didn't really have a viable excuse to stay home, so, in I went. Of course, since this is the Friday before a long weekend (Thanksgiving, up here), the office is a veritable morgue.

In other news, my team managed a 5-2 come-from-behind win last night in an ungodly 11:30PM game. We were down 2-0 at the end of the first, 2-1 at the end of the second, then pounded home 4 goals in the 3rd. I'm definitely loving this new team...

I was going to audioblog last night, but I just never really got to it. I know you're all just 'breathlessly' waiting to hear what I sound like, too. (I even managed to type that entire sentence before I started laughing)

On the home front, Thanksgiving weekend approaches with all the resultant madness Chez Stone/Shagwell. DW is working today (7-12), part of Saturday and a big chunk of Sunday. Yours truly is on a course all day Saturday, followed by an evening hockey practice for The Boy. This leaves us precious little time to commit a serious neatness on the house. I'll do what I can for DW on Sunday, but with an ever-expanding guest list, we'll need to have the house in good shape. I'm trying to find a portable wormhole into which we can drop things to keep them out of the way, but with my knowledge of spatial physics and gravitational anomalies being somewhat on the sketchy side, I think I'm pretty much screwed on that count.

I'm about 2 weeks from my trip to Vancouver for my e-learning conference. DW and I are definitely looking forward to the break. I haven't been to Vancouver in 6 yrs and I'm really excited about getting back. I'm hoping that DW and I can do a little sightseeing while we're there. I'm also hoping to see one of my favourite aunts while we're there.

I think that's all for now.

Welcome back, Steph!

At long last, the Mighty Steph has returned to the blogosphere. Much has been said and speculated about her lengthy and uncharacteristic absence, but I've just been made privy to the real reason why she was away from us for so long. I knew that she was a loyal citizen and would do absolutely anything her country asked, but I'm afraid that I didn't accurately gauge the depth of her patriotism.

Steph, you may be a Dirty Gypsy, but you're a hero to us all.

Murphy is a real prick

It never happens at a good time.

I'm getting sick.

If it was something like a stomach flu, I wouldn't really mind. However, this is forecasting all the symptoms of a very sore throat, congestion, and other skull-based ailments.

This bites.

Why?

Because I don't have to use my gut to teach, but I do need my throat and my sinuses. Teaching will, unfortunately, exacerbate the problem. Since I am the only guy handling the delivery for the process improvement stuff at work, I don't have a qualified backup and I get the make the joyous decision on whether or not I keep going. I have to say that this is one of the reasons why I don't miss teaching regularly. Talking all day left me open to all sorts of throat infections and, way back when, I usually had to teach through it unless I was near death. (I remember well one Exchange Server class where I was sufficiently ill that even the students asked my employer why I wasn't replaced.)

Murphy? You're a real bastard with a nasty sense of timing.

If I'm lucky, this will pass quickly and I'll be healthy enough for the Vancouver trip with DW.

And the award goes to...

Much to my surprise, I've been nominated for some peer recognition for my blog drivel.

I received nominations in 2 categories:

• Best Comment Trail for "Good Grief"
• Best Series for my musings on Steph's whereabouts

Digi was even kind enough to offer a little boost on his most recent post.

Even though I'm doing this for fun, it's nice to get the kudos...

And from the "Stupid Names for Celebrity Offspring" Files...

...allow me to introduce Kal-el Coppola Cage, the latest issue for Nicholas Cage and his 20-something wife.

As DW says, if your kid is gonna be in therapy, it might as well be for a good reason.

*Thought: Motherdear, is that what you really named Kal?* Kal-el Prometheus Jones? :P

Mossy's Carpentry

Due to overwhelming demand, I am offering a photo of the re-built hockey equipment stand that was done for The Boy. Pretty simple pine construction. We found the maple leaf-shaped coat racks at Home Despot and I routed a spot along the main pillar to have them inset. Everything painted in Maple Leafs colours using Krylon, to give it a more solid finish. Top is a fence post cap. Enjoy!

*Whew* What a day

DW and I have definitely had what you could call a full day.

We took The Girl to her choir practice this morning, and I did the drop-off at Choir while DW did the shopping at Sam's Club. We manage to find a replacement Home Theatre system after the whole Best Buy fiasco. We couldn't find the Pioneer system we wanted in a box (no more display units for us!) so we settled for a nice Samsung 5 CD/DVD unit with a reflective surround system. Works pretty nicely, particularly in the confines of the living room.

So, we raced home from Sam's and I took The Boy to his hockey practice. I was wearing some of my gear (pads & gloves) while working with the team's goalie and I definitely got a good workout.

Once we got home, we got some dinner ready and tossed it in the slow cooker then DW and I went to see one of her friends who was having an open house as part of an art studio tour run by the big Town gallery. I have to say that I am not only in awe of the woman's house, I am totally in "we're not worthy!" mode when I see the stuff that she does. DW is equally envious. We then trekked off to the grocery store to get some other essentials for the upcoming Thanksgiving pig-out being hosted chez nous.

We wanted to try and get away to dtrini's end of year BBQ, but we just couldn't get it pulled together in time. Trying to get this place ready and do all the myriad things needed this weekend just blew the timetable out of the water.

On a personal sawdust note, I managed to get more work done on the new legs for The Boy's hockey stand (drilled and screwed together) and I'll hope to get another coat of paint put on it - if not tonight - tomorrow. I'm trying to make it as "Maple Leafs" as possible for him.

Pictures to follow.

Well, its off to savour the rest of my Beck's and see what other help DW needs with household clean/sterilize.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. It's a balmy 26C here today.