The Musing of a Space Brane

Cleaning house.

2013-03-02T18:12:00Z

Dumped most of my user icons, as LJ saw fit to turn off my default one and wouldn't let me turn it back on. *sigh*

Still over on dreamwidth...

Never forgotten.

2012-05-28T21:47:54Z

Honor your dead; Praise the fallen warriors who fight and die for what you hold most dear and precious.

But also honor the living, those who went to fight as boys and girls, and came back men and women... if at all.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Arrr.

2011-12-17T04:52:43Z

Hey congress! It's called 'Fair Use', dammit.

Mississippi Personhood Amendment (signal boost)

2011-10-13T01:48:14Z

Originally posted by gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting ~~very little~~ no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

Writer's Block: The day the earth stood still

2010-09-11T15:44:56Z

Well, it's Caturday, which means I get to sleep in waay late. and maybe go to the range if I can drag myself up to functional level before it's over 9000 degrees out.

It's also the second Caturday of the month, which means I get to show movies for the fresh fish of T.H.E.M. tonight on the projector, which also means that I need to make sure the house is something resembling presentable. (Python and the Holy Grail, followed with some else, time permitting) Whoopsie, my bad.

It's a non-payweek weekend, which means I'm watching my spend a bit closer as well.

Otherwise, nope- normal weekend.

(Side note to the idiots who run the QOTD: Do you have any fucking idea just how stupid and offensive that question is? are y'all shooting dope into your scrotums?)

Oh, right, invite codes.

2010-09-10T01:58:46Z

I have 9 Dreamwidth invite codes, if anyone is interested.

... and that's the final nail in the coffin... [rant]

2010-09-01T05:25:42Z

This will be the last post for this journal on Live journal. Please go over to my dreamwidth journal for any new updates. This journal will be largely closed except for moderator duties and being a commentard to LJ only posts.

Don't ask me to cross-post my comments, or anything else, for that matter, to twitter or facebook- you'll probably be de-friended.

Twitter: I came from a time where you have to pay $$$ for each and every 160 character message your phone sent. I do not see the rational of telling people what I'm doing in real time and in under 160 characters. (See canonical "on toilet taking dump-wish u were here" twitter posting) Hence, I don't use twitter, and I don't see any reason to start. (Sorry web 2.0 peoples, I'm kind of a crotchity old bastard in this respect.)

Face(palm)book: Until Facebook starts respecting privacy, I refuse to do anything more involved then logging in to shut off whatever privacy invading 'feature' they've opted me into and maybe updating my wall. (Hence my new name for it: 'Face(palm)book')

In short, Thanks for all the fish, and come visit me on dreamwidth under the same usertag- We use OpenID and I have a buttload of invites for the asking.

Writer's Block: Who wants to live forever?

2010-08-24T15:16:38Z

I'll leave this one to my friend, tigra_goyan, whom I am informed has quite a bit more experience at this then I do. a *lot* more.

Oh, also:

2010-06-17T03:34:17Z

Because:

a) the Anizona web site appears to be down for duration (i.e., the person* running it let it die);
b) I took the damn pictures and I wanna show them to people;
and
c) Because I can. (I claim my "Use in Portfolio" provision as spelled out in the contract I signed.)

I present the Anizona 1 and 2 archive, free for viewing. Enjoy.

http://www.sub-ether.net/Anizona_archive/

* Probably the only time you'll ever hear me refer to the thing that took something special and completely annihilated it in under a year as a person. But I'm Not Bitter.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Back in the saddle...

2010-06-17T03:19:59Z

Everything should be back online, email included. If you sent me email between Monday and today, resend it- There's a good chance I didn't get it.

If you have gallery space host by me: Please, Please, PLEASE: Check your stuff, make sure everything's showing up properly. If you need a password reset, poke me online or via text.

*wanders out to pool*

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

And so it begins...

2010-06-15T06:00:32Z

*sigh* Upgrading Gallery on the old host to allow my to move the installation to the *new* host. Joy. Here's hoping that I can get all that done before they shut me off in a couple days.

I have at least found out that I can roll DNS back and forth; while I'm not sure if mail's gone kerblooey or not, I'll have that all fixed by end of this week. Who knows, this outage may actually be useful in removing me from some spam lists. :D

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Riiight.

2010-06-11T02:11:15Z

So, prompted by a rather amusing bit of flamage over on dear_gnome, I posted what I think is a fairly edumacated opinion on Blizzard's authenticator, and why it's generally a good idea if you are anything more then just a 'casual gamer' or have some form of attachment to the one's and zero's that make up your character(s).

I mentioned that even three factor security (what you know, what you have, and what you *are*) can be beaten, and here's the explaination for it:

while I was at [ISP], we had a pair of identical twins that worked in our department. I was down at one of our secure facilities one day with both of them to do some work, and the following occurred. Now, the facility uses three factor authentication just to get in the door: a handprint scanner with an attached PIN device, and an RFID access card. Here's how it all broke down:

1. Brother A puts hand on scanner.
2. Brother B enters his PIN code, and then badges in the door, which opens.
3. Security, along with the three of us, go 'WTF!?!?!?!' and demand a repeat, which they cheerfully do.

Now, I reckon that compromise was largely due to the fact that they were identical twins, and that handprint scanners in general have a pretty shitty false-positive rate, even when calibrated properly. It was still amusing though.

For the large part, though, most companies use two factor authentication when single factor is not enough. Said two factor methods generally consist of a PIN/ passcode, and either a keyfob, access card, or a biometric scanner, in decending order of acceptance.

Personally, I find it funny that blizzard is moving to a two factor system for what most mundanes consider a game, although the fact that they are also partially subsidizing it to boost uptake (it's sold at a small loss, and you also get a cute in-game non-combat pet as well) does indicate that they are serious about it.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

ATTENTION: Sub-ether.net Services availibillity Announcement...

2010-06-08T05:11:15Z

This is largely for the 4 others that have stuff hosted on my gallery.

It's been two years with my current webhost, and frankly, I've not been impressed with them At. All.

Between the random outages for no apparent reason, (and refusal to give me a reason), to having the host that sub-ether.net lives on being listed in a spam blacklist for a month before finally getting things cleaned up, I have had enough.

I will be moving over to a different host (Dreamhost, if anyone cares) this month. I'll have more information closer to the cut-over date. (not this week, but next in all likelihood)

Please *DO NOT* upload any new images to the gallery unless you let me know in advance so I can grab backup copies of them. I'm going to be using a backup that I'm pulling down tonight as my starting point. While I don't think passwords will change, anything's possible.

With luck, the new host will have less of the random stupid and more of the awesome that I've been wanting that 3ix has just not been delivering. In addition, I might actually get tiger his own CMS (content management system) for posting his fiction- inconceivable.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

jecook @ 2010-05-31T16:46:00

2010-05-31T23:47:38Z

Remember the fallen.

And remember those that have not fallen, but have given a portion of their lives so that we may live in freedom.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Well, this is annoying as all hell...

2010-05-18T05:28:10Z

Seems that my webhost's abuse department does not take "OH HAI, MY HOST IS IN A CBL FOR BEING A SPAM ZOMBIE" very well.

This, coupled with random outages (which I NEVER find out about until after the fact) pretty much has me looking for a new webhost.

Anyone got any suggestions? Horror stories?

(x-posted to several places)

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

jecook @ 2010-05-03T18:52:00

2010-05-04T01:57:00Z

It seems that the recent gang-rape of the weeds in the back yard had some unintended effects- When I went out to the pool to see if I could just jump in (it's an 'almost there' 74 degrees) I had to avoid a number of small beige spiders.

So, being the curious kitty I am, I went back inside after checking on things and got the camera out and managed to get a picture of one to see if I could figure out how dangerous it is to me.

Here's the picture. (ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CLICK if you have ANY type of spider-phobia!)

For sizing reference, a nickel would probably cover these little guys up- The picture was taken with the camera's macro mode and a bit of patience to sneak up on it.

So, any ideas to what it is, and do I need to call in close air support to take them out?

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

... And that's another nail in the coffin...

2010-04-17T19:05:21Z

LJ turned their affilliate system back on: It would appear that any link you publish will be redirected through a third party site that does some stupid shit. Details here and here.

There is a partial fix: go to the admin console and type set opt_exclude_stats 1. However, that only will work for you, when you are logged in.

While I'm not Pleased by this, I can't exactly jump ship totally at this stage with the moderator roles and the active communities I participate in.

I can, however, pull my sock puppets, and I'm in the process of doing so. You might see a few odd friends pile in momentarily. :D

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Yes, Please.

2010-04-10T19:05:46Z

I. Want. One.

Or, failing that, one of these would be awesomesauce too.

Shame I don't have the 5 grand for one, though. :(

*wanders off to buy another plunger and some batteries.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

... I got nothing.

2010-03-15T02:22:25Z

Tonight's meal: Pasta w/ Chicken and Stuff:

Take:

2 thawed chicken breasts (or for the really impatient, a quantity of cooked and cubed chicken pre-made)
1 package pasta
1 can sliced mushrooms
1 can sliced ovlies
1/4 package of frozen broccoli
1 jar pasta sauce

Cook chicken breasts, unless you've gone down Impatient St. or Lazy Dr.
Cook pasta to direction on package or to al dente, which ever works out better.
While pasta is cooking, cube the chicken if you need to.
About two minutes before the pasta's done, steam-cook the broccoli in a microwave. (Or five-seven minutes before, dump broccoli in for the 'one pot' experience, unless you were ST00PID like me and used the wrong size pot)
Once pasta is cooked, drain, add chicken and remainder of ingredients. Mix and serve.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Don't be a dick.

2010-03-14T17:14:14Z

I was pointed to this entry by m_fallenangel, which validates one of my beliefs, at least.

Little things, when added up, can really fuck over someone's emotional sense of self-worth. A stressful bit of desperation here, a sideways comment there, and by the end of the week, you're curled up in a ball inside and really trying to decide if driving off the 40-50 foot tall transition ramps on the freeway would really end it all or not.

Likewise, Positive little things can stop that destructive cycle in it's tracks sometimes, or at least slow it down to a point where one can recognize what's going on and take protective measures to break out of it.

So all you people: Smile, grin, cackle! Make people wonder what you are up to. Be polite and friendly, even if it's a horrible problem that you are having. Thank everyone you interact with, be a lowly janitor, some poor sod on the telephone slaving away in a support pit of hell, or the person at the cash register! They'll appreciate it.

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Jumping on the bandwagon...

2010-03-06T17:02:44Z

While I don't have a giant list of invites, I do have a few, and here they are:

~~https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=SFHNDXXHCN58WAAADN8L~~
https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=A6VAW87HKWW3VAAADN8M
https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=BYNJBNMFHYNA4AAAD5SL
~~https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=NS5WSMQH3S9QPAAAEA3W~~
~~https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=57BVJ2J6MJ8BHAAAEA3X~~
~~https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=KJD4DC4WCWNN8AAAEA3Y~~
~~https://www.dreamwidth.org/create?from=jecook&code=8QHE9499VZ3SEAAAEA3Z~~

[Originally posted on Dreamwidth. | comments | Sign in with OpenID to reply.]

Suck...

2009-08-26T22:48:16Z

From the property manager:

"Well one thing I can tell you for sure is that we can not have cats in
the property. This probably is not going to work for them at this time as
Cats are an absolute postive no. We have had way too many issues with cats."

I call BULLSHIT.

I'm having the realtor checking with our runner up, just to see if it's even worth investigating. Otherwise, back to square one.

*sigh*

jecook @ 2009-07-29T15:32:00

2009-07-29T22:49:56Z

So today we went and toured the Jelly Belly distribution center (Yep, it looks like any other warehouse I've ever been in) and picked up a few things for people who had asked:

Pear flavor
Chocolate pudding (they didn't have chocolate cake, this was the closest I could think of.)
Blueberry
Tutti Fruiti

Alas, they did not have grass or horse flavor. (they had babywipes, pencil shavings, boogers, vomit, and two other 'gross' flavors.)

I also got:
Dr. Pepper flavor (!) (and I got enough to share with people)
Assorted soda pop flavor box
the cheesy plastic dispenser box, and *6* pounds of what they term "belly flops" (i.e., the irregulars that didn't make the grade for whatever reason)

So I'll have those at the next THEM meeting for those that requested stuff.

I also picked up a few other amusements as well, like the OOTS card game and the first two 4th Ed. playerbooks.

jecook @ 2009-06-20T20:30:00

2009-06-21T03:55:35Z

So as I was driving up to Prescott with Momthra in tow this morning (for her, to get out of the valley; for me, to do an Ammo run and get out of the valley) She mentioned that she had things that she wanted to do yesterday, but due to life, she barely got them done. She also mentioned that it's come and go, and some days are better then others. She also mentioned that the disability folks are talking about reviewing her case to see if she's still eligible, which terrifies her- She does not look sick, and her doctors have a hard time pinning it down as a disability.

As she was talking, the realization hit me: She's talking about spoons.

While I don't have a hard time believing that she's disabled (I've seen her on bad days compared to her good days, and it scares the willies out of me) That link and theory did give me some insight as how she manages.

Edit: From Momthra her self:
It showed me how to view how I feel many times but don't know how to tell others. Thank your friends. Good night. Thanks for the day.

What. Is. Dreamwidth?

2009-05-03T18:58:25Z

Dreamwidth is a journal site based on the Livejournal source code, but with a massively overhauled 'friends' system, and an administrative team that doesn't suck. One of their principles is transparency in the business operations, in fact.

They have a wiki entry that explains it a hell of a lot better then I'm able to:

http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Notable_Dreamwidth_Reading

~~If you would like in, poke me for an invite code~~. I'll post when I've got more invite codes.