Three till Seven

There’s some Latino guy on TV yelling about multi-variable calculus… I just grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and came back upstairs; I don’t know what movie that is that Mom’s watching. I’m currently ogling t-shirts on Ruby Stuff, trying to find a nice one that both expresses my geekiness and makes me look stylish. I’m thinking about going with the simple ‘I <3 Ruby' shirt, on the vein of the ubiquitous 'I <3 NY' shirts. I keep seeing these adorable 'Java Rehab' and 'Perl Rehab' shirts, but no 'PHP Rehab'. That one would completely suit me, since PHP was My Thing before I found Ruby. Eh well. Hey, maybe I'll go with these snazzy I <3 Ruby thongs… Not!

I’ve been looking for different WPR’s at which my site can be reviewed, but each one I find is closed for submissions. I think that’s so annoying. I realize it’s hard to keep submissions open because doing each review takes such a long time (I was the owner of 6:57 PM Reviews, known for its months-at-a-time delay on review completions), but I wish folks would realize that before opening shop. I did find one place that was accepting reviews, though I didn’t see recent updates, which is a bad sign. Nevertheless, I’m now waiting on a review from Autumn Sky Reviews. I dug through the Reviews section of Glitter and found several dead links, which I reported. I think WPR’s might have the quickest drop-out rate of any type of site out there. Even blogs are easier to keep running, because at least with those you practically have ready-made content in the form of Quizilla quizzes and whatnot that aren’t a chore to do.

Ooh, speaking of quizzes, Todd took one the other day that I’ve been meaning to do: “Which file extension are you?“. Très nerdy, eh?

And while I’m at this BBspot site and noticing other potentially fun quizzes…

Beyond exciting quizzes and Ruby shopping, I signed the “Novell-Microsoft deal sucks” petition by Bruce Perens, because I find the deal disgusting. The recent mudslinging by Ballmer about Linux infringing on MS patents is equally disturbing, and just increases my hate of that slimeball company even more. Show us the code, Ballmer, but that would be too reasonable. Instead, he’s probably just going to sling more accusations around and generally play this like the whole SCO fiasco, dragging it out when there is no violation, no patent infringement.

Another thing that bugs me is the talk of including proprietary drivers in Ubuntu’s Feisty Fawn by default. That seems to be contrary to the whole idea of Ubuntu, and as such it upsets and angers me. As I put on the Ubuntu Forums the other day, maybe I left Debian for this easy sell-out of a distribution too early.

While checking my site stats, I discovered I was getting a lot of hits from some MySpace profile. I checked and the little douchebag Joey from Middleboro, MA has a very familiar background image:

Screenshot of Joey’s profile.

A piece of my digital art.

I’m now reading up on preventing image bandwidth theft so that I can foil losers like this.

There are other hotlinkers, too! Mandy is using an image from my old Anita Blake fan site, I am Sofa King We Todd Did is using an image from Junk Drawer, Dan is using the same image, Heretical Johnny is using the same image, @ngle is using the same image as Joey, and there were two other profiles listed whose use of my images I couldn’t even see because their profiles are closed off! Ridiculous. I’m glad I found this, and I’m glad I followed an A List Apart tutorial last night on hotlinking prevention.

I just took and posted new photos of Todd and I.

I like this one the best, I think. It was the first one we took and I didn’t know he was going to pull a face.

Just a normal photo, though like in all of them, you can see up my nose.

Todd was trying not to laugh, so he looks constipated.

Another normal one.

I took the Which Marvel superhero are you? quiz and got The Hulk. Yeah baby!

The product of a science experiment gone awry, Bruce Banner turns into the unstoppable green monster the “Hulk” whenever his temper rises. The more angry he gets, the stronger the Hulk becomes. Bruce travels the world, hoping to find a cure for the Hulk and bring his life back to normal. However, he often has to become the Hulk to save those he loves when danger threatens.

Bentley was Mr. Fantastic and Todd was The Punisher.

I just took an enneagram test I found on Trin’s site. It had a whopping two questions and is pretty darn accurate:

“I am affectionate and skeptical”

Questioners are responsible, trustworthy, and value loyalty to family, friends, groups, and causes. Their personalities range broadly from reserved and timid to outspoken and confrontative.

• How to Get Along with Me
  • Be direct and clear.
  • Listen to me carefully.
  • Don’t judge me for my anxiety.
  • Work things through with me.
  • Reassure me that everything is OK between us.
  • Laugh and make jokes with me.
  • Gently push me toward new experiences.
  • Try not to overreact to my overreacting.
• What I Like About Being a Six
  • being committed and faithful to family and friends
  • being responsible and hardworking
  • being compassionate toward others
  • having intellect and wit
  • being a nonconformist
  • confronting danger bravely
  • being direct and assertive
• What’s Hard About Being a Six
  • the constant push and pull involved in trying to make up my mind
  • procrastinating because of fear of failure; having little confidence in myself
  • fearing being abandoned or taken advantage of
  • exhausting myself by worrying and scanning for danger
  • wishing I had a rule book at work so I could do everything right
  • being too critical of myself when I haven’t lived up to my expectations
• Sixes as Children Often
  • are friendly, likable, and dependable, and/or sarcastic, bossy, and stubborn
  • are anxious and hypervigilant; anticipate danger
  • form a team of “us against them” with a best friend or parent
  • look to groups or authorities to protect them and/or question authority and rebel
  • are neglected or abused, come from unpredictable or alcoholic families, and/or take on the fearfulness of an overly anxious parent
• Sixes as Parents
  • are often loving, nurturing, and have a strong sense of duty
  • are sometimes reluctant to give their children independence
  • worry more than most that their children will get hurt
  • sometimes have trouble saying no and setting boundaries

I also read an essay on the dialect of the Appalachian people that was interesting.

I made a new layout that I’m quite pleased with. It’s called Blue Flower, and I think you should give ‘er a go and see how you like it. I’ve only checked it in Firefox 2.0b2 and Opera on my Ubuntu system, so I have no idea how Safari, IE, or any other browsers fare with it. If you experience any problems, please let me know. The photo I used is one I took in 2004 of a lily by the side of our road, and the original version can be found in the gallery.