Saturday, November 07, 2009

An Open Letter to My Levitra Spammer

Dear Anonymous Levitra spammer,

You left this comment on a month's old post on my beading blog:
Correctly! Goes! [url=http://.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=acheter_levitra_ici_1euro&acheter-levitra]achat levitra[/url] In my opinion, it is actual, I will take part in discussion. I know, that together we can come to a right answer.
I was so disappointed that I couldn't follow your link. You need to learn how the html for links on a blog post Correctly! Goes! You were probably planning to make some money off every click. Or maybe clicking the link would send someone to a malware site where you'd be able to steal some important information via a virus. I don't know enough about links to know which, but it's a shame that won't be happening. Sad to be you.

Also, the post you left your comment on? It was a story about how The Beadin' Path obtained over 40,000 lbs of vintage Lucite. It was a great story (if you're into making jewelry) and yes, it was actual! I'm just not sure that there's a 'right answer' to come to.

And why post anonymously? How can we have a discussion? How can I come to *your* blog and spam your comments about my jewelry in return? Surely that would be a worthy discussion...I'd be thrilled to put a link to my Artfire shop in the comments on every post. I bet with all your spamming you'd get a lot of traffic that I could piggy-back on for profit! Another lost opportunity for collaborative synergy!

You kids today. You just don't know how to spam like they did in the old days.

Sincerely,

Dawno

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Now, New and Improved! Latest Scam Spam with extra FBI and Homeland Security Enhancement!

I think my favorite part of the email below is the convoluted grammar, odd capitalizations and reference to DHS, "The FBI Seattle Division in conjunction with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Has screened through our various Monitoring Networks and has been confirmed and notified that the transaction you have with the Financial Institution is Legal and you have the Lawful Right to claim your due fund."

Doesn't everyone with an email address know by now that if the email says to contact a "bank" in Nigeria that it's a scam?

Oh, and regardless of the "confidentiality" notice at the end, I'd like to see them try to take action against me for sharing this with you - there were no addresses listed on the email, so the "intended for the addresses (sic) only" bit - kind of hard to enforce...
subjectNOTICE OF YOUR FUND APPROVAL


Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Seattle Division
1110 Third Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101-2904


Our Ref: FRBN/NY/PA/INV/2009

NOTICE OF YOUR FUND APPROVAL

This is to inform that you are eligible to receive the sum of $7,500,000.00US dollars regarding to an over-due Inheritance/Award payment which was fully endorsed to be paid in your favor.

The FBI Seattle Division in conjunction with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Has screened through our various Monitoring Networks and has been confirmed and notified that the transaction you have with the Financial Institution is Legal and you have the Lawful Right to claim your due fund.

Note that the reason for not contacting you before now was that firstly, the bank is responsible for the payments and as such proper work has to be done to avoid beneficiaries loosing their money due to false claim by some people you are advised to follow the procedure of the Financial Institution. They have their own legal procedure which we have examined and confirmed legal.

To effect and carry out the directives given, you are advised to contact the Payment Systems of Central Bank of Nigeria:-

Sir. Charles Ferguson
International Claims Officer
Phone: +234 803 755 5341
Fax: +234 014 563 234
E-Mail: centralbankng@chinaren.com

Note all above information is expected within 24 - 72 Hours that from when you receive this mail, should you not respond means your approval will be turned down and returned to the Government treasury account as unclaimed Funds. Modalities of transfer will be avail to you upon the receipt of this mail.

Yours sincerely,
Mr. Richard Blair
CC: Federal Bureau of Investigation
CC: National Central Bureau of Interpol
******************************
*****************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER NOTICE:
Information contained in this email is confidential and intended for the addresses only. Any dissemination, distribution, copying or use of this communication without prior permission from the addressee is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient of this communication, please delete it permanently without copying, disclosing or otherwise using its contents, and notify the sender immediately.
******************************
***************************************************************************

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Welcome Back to Standard Time




I should be happy - it's an extra hour of sleep! Did you remember to set your clocks back last night (well, except for you folk in places where it never changed in the first place)? Good thing they do this over the weekend, I bet a lot of people forget and end up getting to places an hour earlier than they should...and who would want to show up an hour early to work on a Monday? ick.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ring Tone Symphony

Found this while "wandering around the Beadosphere", by which I mean reading jewelry artist blogs on my Google Reader page. From Lori Anderson's Design Blog:

Thursday, October 22, 2009

New Video Symphony of Science

"The Symphony of Science is a musical project by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. Here you can watch music videos, download songs, read lyrics and find links relating to the messages conveyed by the music."

This video features Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye and is so wonderful - goosebump wonderful...



Have you seen the previous one? Gorgeous, thought provoking...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

I was too young for Woodstock, but I got to see w00tstock v1.0




Billed as "3 hours of geeks and music", the show was 3½ hrs long and definitely had geeks and music in abundance. Also, "special guest" video appearances of Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (being read by Wil Wheaton), which got a reaction of mixed laughter and applause, and Neil Gaiman, as seen in the opening credits of of a fictitious sitcom video clip (he's seen at 33 seconds in) who may have gotten the loudest applause that night for being in a 5 second shot in a video. Neil does add a lot of cool to anything he's seen in. The sitcom, which "...was canceled during the first commercial break of the first episode, and was ordered destroyed by then-ABC President Grant Tinker..." starred Jonathan Coulton (also not in attendance last night).

We spent nearly two hours on the freeway/city traffic to get to San Francisco last night to see w00tstock v1.0. Normally a 45 min to 1 hr drive, but traffic was slowed down considerably by rain, often very hard rain. Some of the delay was also due to me not giving the DH good directions and having to take a very long detour. Nonetheless, we did arrive before the show started and got fairly good seats even though they were in the very last row - it wasn't that big a venue, fortunately.

The majority of the w00tstock v1.0 audience, as far as I could judge, was male (rough guess, 60% maybe more), iPhone carrying, mathematical or ironic tee-shirt wearing, late 20's to late 30's people. As a 50-something female in a Jones New York blouse and sweater, with a rather old Motorola Razr, should I have felt more out of place? Nah, I had a great time, got most of the jokes and references, and occasionally laughed very hard. We got home really late, so I wasn't able to write this when everything was fresh in my mind, so these are just some general impressions.

The house lights dimmed and Wil Wheaton came out in his official Department of Geek Affairs tee-shirt. We were welcomed, told that the show was under a Creative Commons license (warm laugh from audience) and warned that the show is "in beta". My first clue, before even being told, was that Wil was reading from a folded sheet of paper. I didn't mind that one bit, nor the other little flubs and goofs - it was kind of like being a special guest to a dress rehearsal. Someday, when a more polished w00tstock is on tour, well, I can say "I was there for the first one" :-)

Paul and Storm performed some sets throughout the evening, but because I had seen them open for Jonathan Coulton, I'd heard the songs before - maybe not the Frogger one, although I don't recall. Then came Molly Lewis, who plays the ukulele, and Kid Beyond, whose first piece I missed while taking a break outside for a bit, but I got back in time for the end of his set, which featured two Muppet mashup videos and his commentary - which were quite funny.

Wil Wheaton did a dramatic reading from Just a Geek accompanied by Paul (kazoo) and Storm (guitar) and two of the Kasper Hauser troupe read "[an] actual exchange between Kasper Hauser ("Jock Plenary") and a Nigerian e-mail scammer ("Justice Shaish")" (by the way - as a huge fan of This American Life I found their podcasts spoofing TAL hysterical).

The last guest was Adam Savage, who did a slideshow of his 100 Wishes which I found touching, sometimes funny and generally pretty cool.

We got home pretty late, nearly 1 am, which, especially this morning, made me wish the show had been on a Friday or Saturday night - maybe w00tstock 2010... As I write this, the second San Francisco show is about to start. There's one more show scheduled, down in L.A., tomorrow.


Update - from w00tstock in LA Wil Wheaton Intro and (Do You Want to)Date My Avatar with Felicia Day & friends




Monday, October 05, 2009

Facts & Fantasy - New Steampunk Webcomic, Glooper & MONIAC

In the Terry Pratchett book Making Money, Moist Von Lipwig learns about the secret in the basement. If you have not read Making Money and you do not want to read a bit of a spoiler, please skip this entire post. Here's a video of a kitten instead. If you don't mind the tiny spoiler, scroll past the kitten video and read on.




I had no idea that there was a real Glooper (you *are* a Discworld fan, right?)...wow! I found out about MONIAC (or Phillips Hydraulic Computer) because I just was introduced to 2D Goggles - a web comic about Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage via BoingBoing.

Source: Wikimedia Commons "This is a faithful photographic reproduction
of an original two-dimensional work of art.
The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired"



Source: Wikimedia Commons: "A scan or photograph of a page from The Illustrated London News Newspaper
by unknown staff artist
Permission: Published in 1871, copyright expired 70 years after publication, 1941.

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired"


Here are two videos of the MONIAC at work:





Of course playing around with MONIAC doesn't actually make the world economy change, like Glooper did...or does it? I may have just invented a new world economic meltdown conspiracy theory.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Customer Service - We Haz It...

If I didn't care about my career, this would be perfect for the office...

funny pictures of cats with captions

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Support Marriage Equality



On August 19, 2006 my significant other of 15 years and I were married. Many couples who have been together as long or longer do not have the same privilege as my husband and I. Isn't it about time that changed?

White Knot


From WhiteKnot.org's email template, the story of the White Knot:

The White Knot is the symbol for support of Marriage Equality—the right for any loving couple regardless of gender to be married under the civil laws of the state and the country. Everyone should have the right to tie the knot.

Marriage Equality is a vital civil right denied to most same-sex couples except in that handful of states where it has finally been recognized. It is vital because marriage is about committed couples—all committed couples—who want to make a lifelong promise to take care of and be responsible for each other. This can only strengthen family and society. This is why Marriage Equality is important to everyone.

It's not just about the word Marriage. Denying committed couples the security and legal protections of marriage hurts them. It's just plain wrong to make it harder for them to take care of and be responsible for each other. The institution of civil marriage offers equal protection under the law when it comes to taxes, health care and decision-making, employment benefits, and perhaps most importantly, raising healthy and happy children.

So I ask you to join me today in showing your support for Marriage Equality and equal rights under the law for everyone. Wear a White Knot every day. Tell people why you are wearing it. And if you can, hand out White Knots to those around you.

For more information, go to www.whiteknot.org. There you can find out how to get White Knots, make your own, get more information about the issues, and even donate to help spread the word.


You can get a blog badge, too.

Friday, September 18, 2009

I Bet There's a Perfectly Fine Bowl of Water on the Floor Nearby

I think the best part comes at about 2 minutes in. Thanks to Kristie at Simply Shiny where I saw this first.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

PSA #2 - Check Out My Friend's New Book Trailer!

You may want to adjust your volume before starting trailer. When you're done watching - go here, click on the link in his sidebar and buy the book!!

PSA


Saturday, September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
I don't know if this is really supposed to be a pirate girl, but that was the caption.
Image from Graphics Fairy


I have a lovely calendar I keep in my cubicle at work from one of the bead supply companies I frequent, Artbeads. Each month has a photo of a piece of jewelry made from their beads and each month they've got the special events and holidays printed in the little date squares. I was very pleasantly surprised, and quite amused, to see that they had printed "Talk Like a Pirate Day" on the calendar.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

He Didn't Get the Memo

Over on John Scalzi's blog, Whatever, John bemoans a cracked molar and wants to know who to blame. My friends and readers know. Yes, all three of you!

Obviously the 'Blame Dawno' PR flacks haven't been doing their job. Not one person has blamed Dawno. It's a sad state of affairs when people don't realize they can rest secure that all their woes (since July 23, 1957 at least) can be blamed on Dawno.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Yes, I Was Cat Waxing and Found This...

Link provided by Cat Waxing and Colour Coordinated Pens (a great new blog, btw) - not my usual musical fare, but love this on other levels...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Yes, it's another cat video...and another grandkittie picture, too

First seen at Linkmeister's blog:



Our cats prefer to just sleep in our desk chairs...


Thursday, July 30, 2009

Random Thing #12 - Birthday Edition

Last week was my birthday week. I celebrated the 52nd year of "Blame Dawno" in style starting off the week with a great trip to Berkeley where I had a bead and books day with two friends I first met, if memory serves, at Worldcon in Denver, and have kept up with through various cons and online since.

We visited Baubles and Beads first then had a wonderful lunch and then wandered over to Another Change of Hobbit. One of the store cats there decided it needed a ride on my shoulder, the other one seemed to demonstrate an interesting trans-dimensional travel ability by folding itself through space to dissapear under a bookshelf via the gap between the bottom shelf and the floor, which we all thought was entirely too small for it to fit under.

Then my daughter drove up to spend the rest of the week here. On my birthday we (daughter, DH and I) saw Harry Potter and had a most wonderful dinner at Forbes Mill Steakhouse in Los Gatos (my daughter has a picture of me but hasn't sent it yet - will share soon as I get it). The next day daughter and I went to San Francisco for shopping at Union Square, another lovely dinner at Lark Creek Steak (the iced tea was amazing, the wedge salad and steak were divine and the butterscotch pudding, fabulous). After dinner we saw Wicked at the Orpheum.

Over the course of my daughter's visit we had some fun moments, including donning "I Threw Boring Overboard" paper pirate hats from Long John Silver's (again daughter has a picture I'm waiting for) and her creation of a short series of paper napkin drawings which I, as promised, scanned and saved, to my daughter's complete amusement. Here's one of them:


Thursday, July 02, 2009

Pudding

The DH captured a closeup of grandkitty Pudding that I thought was rather special.



Thursday, June 25, 2009

ACLU Sues DHS Over Unlawful TSA Searches And Detention (6/18/2009)

I hope that this case makes an impact on the TSA and law enforcement. Sometimes I want to weep for what is happening here in America.

To hear for yourself the recording of the interrogation of a passenger doing nothing illegal and simply asking "Am I legally required to answer" and getting a total line of crap please go to http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/39922res20090618.html

ACLU Sues DHS Over Unlawful TSA Searches And Detention (6/18/2009)

Treasurer Of Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty Detained And Interrogated For Carrying Cash At St. Louis Airport

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is subjecting innocent Americans to unreasonable searches and detentions that violate the Constitution, according to a lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed the complaint on behalf of a traveler who was illegally detained and harassed by TSA agents at the airport for carrying approximately $4,700 in cash.

"Airport searches are the most common encounters between Americans and law enforcement agents. That's why it is so important for TSA agents to do the job they were trained to do and not engage in fishing expeditions that do nothing to promote flight safety," said Ben Wizner, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "It is, of course, very important to ensure the safety of flights and keep illegal weapons and explosives off planes. But allowing TSA screeners to conduct general purpose law enforcement searches violates the Constitution while diverting limited resources from TSA's core mission of protecting safety. For the sake of public safety and constitutional values, these unlawful searches should stop."

On March 29, 2009, Steven Bierfeldt was detained in a small room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and interrogated by TSA officials for nearly half an hour after he passed a metal box containing cash through a security checkpoint X-ray machine. Bierfeldt was carrying the cash in connection with his duties as the Director of Development for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization that grew out of Congressman Ron Paul's presidential campaign.

Bierfeldt was detained and questioned as he returned home from a Campaign for Liberty event transporting proceeds from the sale of tickets, t-shirts, stickers and campaign material. Bierfeldt repeatedly asked the agents to explain the scope of their authority to detain and interrogate him and received no explanation. Instead, the agents escalated the threatening tone of their questions and ultimately told Bierfeldt that he was being placed under arrest. Bierfeldt recorded the audio of the entire incident with his iPhone.

"I do not believe I should give up my constitutional rights each time I choose to travel by plane. I was doing nothing illegal or suspicious, yet I was treated like a potential criminal and harassed for no reason," said Bierfeldt. "Most Americans would be surprised to learn that TSA considers simply carrying cash to be a basis for detention and questioning. I hope the court makes clear that my detention by TSA agents was unconstitutional and stops TSA from engaging in these unlawful searches and arrests. I do not want another innocent American to have to endure what I went through."

"Mr. Bierfeldt's experience represents a troubling pattern of TSA attempting to transform its valid but limited search authority into a license to invade people's privacy in a manner that would never be accepted outside the airport context," said Larry Schwartztol, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "Just as the Constitution prevents the police on the street from conducting freewheeling searches in the hopes of uncovering wrongdoing, it protects travelers from the kind of treatment Mr. Bierfeldt suffered."

TSA officials have the authority to conduct safety-related searches for weapons and explosives. According to the ACLU's lawsuit, TSA agents are using heightened security measures after 9/11 as an excuse to exceed their search authority and engage in unlawful searches that violate the privacy rights of passengers. The lawsuit also charges that unconstitutional searches and detention by TSA agents have become the norm.

The ACLU's lawsuit was filed against Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, which has authority over TSA. It was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Attorneys on the case are Wizner, Scott Michelman and Allen Hopper of the ACLU, Art Spitzer of the ACLU National Capital Area and cooperating attorney Alan Gura of Gura and Possessky, P.L.L.C.

More information about the case, including the ACLU's complaint and an audio recording of Bierfeldt's detention and interrogation, is available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/general/39922res20090618.html

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Happy Birthday to the US Army

It looks likely that my son will, if not make a career of service in the Army, be re-enlisting for another few years. Captured below are two videos saluting the Army NCO, and the Army's 234th birthday in the Year of the NCO. So, as a proud mother of a wonderful son, proud of his service and his discipline as a Soldier, I salute Matthew and all the brave enlisted men and women serving and who have served, today.



Thursday, June 11, 2009

Saying Good-bye to Our Dear Cat, Yogurt



Yogurt, 1991 (?) - 2009

Yogurt came to our home, when we lived down in Bakersfield, back in 1992 and hung around outside (my husband put food out for him, so that may have been why). He had a collar, so we thought he'd eventually go home. But he just kept hanging around and nobody seemed to be looking for him.

So we posted an ad in the "found cat" section of the local paper for quite a while and let him into the house while we waited, and introduced him to the two other cats we already had (Oatmeal and Pumpkin). No calls. Eventually we adopted him, named him Yogurt and trained him to be an indoor cat - something he didn't really appreciate but eventually became resigned to.

He got out a time or two in Bakersfield before we had him neutered, but was content to be inside after that. - except for one night here in Silicon Valley a couple years back, when he was out almost all night. The DH didn't sleep a wink, wandered around the neighborhood calling for him, looking behind bushes. Finally, so tired he had to try to get some rest, he went out front one more time and there was Yogurt in the front yard. He looked like he got into a small tussle with another cat, but was otherwise fine.

Yogurt was always a very talkative cat. You could get him to vocalize pretty easily and we'd have long 'conversations' with him. He loved to sit at the back door and chat with the birds that landed out back. I'm sure he'd have loved to have them for dinner, too. He was a patient, kind cat as well in these last years, who'd come sit on your lap and let you scratch him as long as you wanted, purring up a storm the whole time.

Last week all the cats went in for shots and check-ups and the vet was worried about how much weight Yogurt had lost. He had been a bit sick that week but otherwise seemed ok. Unfortunately, when the blood work came back yesterday, the diagnosis was total kidney failure. While we could possibly have kept him going for a while, he'd be in a lot of pain because it appeared he'd also suffered some nerve damage - which hadn't been a problem, it seems, before the vet visit, but he was definitely having trouble now with his back legs and tail - he's fallen over a couple times in the last day. So the decision to let him go was made.

He was the last of the 'elder' cats, we lost Pumpkin first and then Oatmeal not that long after. We became the people of two 'grandkitties' not that long ago, when my son joined the Army and moved to the East coast. We love them dearly, but we have a lot of great memories with Yogurt and he leaves us with a huge empty place in our hearts.

Edited to add: I'm bringing this comment from my husband up to the main page:

I have several distinct memories of Yogurt. Dawno already mentioned one: when he showed up at our door. He was a gangly pre-teen. 17 years later I still remember he had a light blue collar on.

A month or so after that, I was piddling around doing something in the bedroom. Yogurt jumped onto my lap, turned around, and sprayed me. He got fixed the very next day. We had him de-clawed as well... a decision I'd later regret. The two cats we have now have their claws and they don't destroy our furniture.

Not too long after we moved up to the bay area (maybe a month, maybe a year... it's all starting to run together), Yogurt and I were rough-housing a little and he got freaked out. He felt cornered and chewed his way through my hand to get out. I spent 3 days in the hospital with a bad infection.

Dawno also mentioned the time he escaped the house. This was just three or four years ago. She didn't mention she was the one who left the back door open, though :). I spent hours wandering up and down the street, between houses, along the driveways, etc. I was so worried. It eventually got too late and I had to stop. For some reason, people didn't really appreciate me wandering around their yards at 1:00 am with a flashlight. I was ready to crawl into bed and I decided to poke my head out the door one more time. I opened the door, called his name and he literally stepped onto the patio and meowed at me. He had a few scrapes above his eye and was missing a small notch or two from his ear... another reason I regretted declawing him. I slept pretty well that night with him back in the house.

Ever since Pumpkin and Oatmeal died, Yogurt very much became my cat, and I became his person. He slept with me every night, either within arm's reach or actually physically on me. He even went through a phase where he slept on my head. Thankfully that was a short phase.

Last night he was so miserable that he found his own quiet corner to sleep. It was the first night in years (that I can remember) in which I was home and he didn't sleep with me. I'll have to get used to that, I suppose.

Good-bye Yogurt. I love you.

Friday, June 05, 2009

This Post Needs No Title

This is Pudding (sister: Jello, Uncle: Yoghurt) one of my grandkitties - I've shown other pictures of him and his sister on this blog so you may remember him.

Anyway, he just had his haircut. He was not happy at all when he got home, growling and hissing at us and the other cats. He went to every food bowl and ate something then went upstairs and put himself on the little half-wall that overlooks the stairwell. It proved to be a great place for some pictures.




The hair around his face is much shorter and more rounded than normal.




show that cleavage kitten!



That looks like a glamor shot!



A very dramatic pose




And another one! I have no idea what he was looking at, shadows maybe?

Friday, May 29, 2009

Random Thing #11: By Popular Demand...Faux'Gria


This is what I have sometimes when I'm stuck in a hotel room and am craving a Sangria and either there is no bar, the bar isn't open or the bartender goes "huh?" when you ask for Sangria. The hotel shop usually has all of these (at least the ones I stay in do).

One can Sprite (NOT diet, ick)

One individual size bottle (or if only option, can) orange juice

One individual size bottle of red wine (any red will do, I get the Merlot)

No Picture Available

Pour equal parts into a glass. Depending on size of glass you will probably have one or two more servings left over. Sometimes all you get in a hotel are those small plastic glasses, which hold even less. I try to stay in hotels with some kind of real glassware in the room or else keep one from the breakfast buffet...

If it sounds disgusting, just remember, it's still better than the tapwater.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Recently Read




Just finished reading WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer and was very pleased with it. I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. The book is about emerging intelligence, physics, computers, technology which restores the main character's sight and so much more. It's optimistic for the most part and very sympathetic. This isn't a book review, it's late and I'm too tired to try to be analytical, it's just my recommendation to read it. If you click the link above to buy it, a few pennies go into my beading fund :-) so thanks!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Um, Sorry, But I Don't Think We're Really a Good Match, Ifeanyi

Google's spam filters do a very good job. I probably only get 3 or 4 a day in the in-box. This one slipped by, though:

I bless the day I set eyes on your mail thats is my word,but of all let me say compliments of the season to you my angel.My purpose of emailing you is that i needed a white man to marry me as husband,
Ok, first mistake. There seems to be some gender confusion going on. I'm not sure where it comes from, I tend to dress and act fairly feminine. Also note the past tense "needed a white man to marry me as husband" - is this a Dear John?
Since my child hood i have been dreaming of marrying white at least i will be the first to marry white in my home town,any day God of heaven makes this happen or comes to pass i will be the happiest person on earth.I just want to let you know that age does not matter in marriage i am 23years old now,loving you is like making heaven,pls honey do not say no to my proposal you are all i have honey,
I'm saddened by this need to "marry white" and I doubt that God of heaven approves as well.

I will use this oppurturnity to thank your mother for given birth to you because without her you can not exist.Writing something to you is like making heaven i have always had something to laugh about lately and someone to think about which is you, I used to have dark and lonely days because of my dream and heart desire,days coos the sun don稚 shine my way because my dream have'nt come to pass,
I'm thankful my mother had me too. I'm sorry that she has passed away and can't know that a spammer is grateful to her for having me. I don't think she'd take it as a great compliment, though.

wish that I could find the words to say and show you that love is real but words cant express the way you make me feel, so you are my angel my sun up in the sky, I may be
going through hell but as long as I get your reply to talk to you I feel like i am in Heaven, The way I see things only you
can ease this pains I feel and wipe my tears away, only you can make me whole again.
I'm feeling very sorry for this person, to have invested so much in me that I cannot reciprocate. I'm thinking she needs to start working on some self esteem issues.

Honey not a day goes by that I don稚 think of my furture wife which is you , when I think of the conversation I feel like I have been very blessed already all ready though i have'nt got your feed back but i know that God of heaven will make it happen, just one thing I ask God for lately
and that痴 just for me to hold your hands and if that would be all I don稚 mind. I donor make promises but I tell you I 'all be the best I can be.
Huh? Now I'm a future wife? Not in California, sorry to say. There's this law called Prop 8, see. I'm against it and all for gay marriage. Even if it were legal, though, I'm already married and I don't think the polygamy law will be overturned. Plus, and I think this is the main show-stopper, not gay.
I just had to let this words out talk my heart and felt I should tell you about my self i am a black girl based at cote d'ivoire ivory coast.i wish to stop hear untill i hear from you soon pls honey think of me.
yours in love
Ifeanyi Gideon
Ifeanyi, I hope you find true love. I hope you find it based in cote d'ivoire ivory coast. I hope you find it with a fine man of any race who loves you. While it's probably true that I'm a heaven sent blessing to my dear husband (who, if he were reading that, might pass out from hysterical laughter) I'm sure you can do much better for yourself than me. Hate to break your heart, but it's better to be honest and make a clean break of it. You'll thank me some day.

But, of course, you're not a 23 year old black "girl" (more self-esteem problems, or, more likely the spam was written by a total mysogynist asshole, with only Penthouse as his guide to what 'real women' are like, because a 23 year old female is a woman, honey). I'm not sure who you are but in the end, I've sent your email to the spam folder.

New Look - Whadda Ya Think?

Yes, I succumbed to the new Blogger layouts. Been tweeking it, trying to get close to old look. Lost a lot of the stuff in the sidebar and added new stuff.

The reason I did it was that I looked at my blog this morning and the side bar was completely fracked. (or is that frakked?) Tried fixing the html, but my brain isn't working too well since I'm still aching from the weekend at the convention. Gave up and said what the heck to "upgrading" to layouts.

At least now I can see who my followers are. Won't you be one, too?

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Dawno is Not Pleased at All By PicturePeople.quebecblogue.com 's Plagiarism

Today I posted a little wrap up of my experience in Artist's Alley at Bay Con over in my beading blog.

Soon after I got a Google Alert that sent me to a post on a robbing SOB plagiarizing blog called "PicturePeople" that had the exact same title as my post but text that looked like my post had been run through Babelfish a couple times via French, Dutch and Italian then back to English (which, if you haven't done yet, is fun).

You can compare the two at my blog - the text from the stolen post seen on the robbing SOB plagiarist blog is found in its entirety at the bottom of my blog, so don't give the robbing SOB plagiarist any traffic...even though I've given you the link to the robbing SOB post stealing plagiarist's site.

However, feel free to let the world know about the robbing, stealing, plagiarist blog site called Picture People.

Our Masters, the Cats

Cats. I'm owned by three of them. They decide what particular convoluted shape we get to sleep in at night, when we have to get up to supply food or re-fill the water dish - 3am is a particularly fine time to push the water dish around and wake me for a refill. They decide our seating arrangements - "sorry, I'm napping in your computer chair right now, how about you just kneel in front of the desk for a while?" "You didn't really want to work on that necklace I'm sleeping on right now, did you?", etc.

So I'm quite fond of the various cat pictures and videos from I Can Haz Cheezburger. Here's a silly dignified cat with a large box to play in conquer - the ending is particularly cute.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Random Thing #10

I've posted a couple videos (because I can!!) *ahem* because I found them funny and hoped my one or two readers might also.

This is random thing #10 about me - I'm on the Ninja side of the Ninja v. Pirates question.

Ninja Parade...


Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

New Engineer Guys Cat Video - Worth Waiting for the Concert at the End...

Saturday, May 16, 2009


TIGERS LEOPARDS Vs Pumpkins! - The best home videos are here

Recommended Reading: Bizarro Bytes

I'd like to suggest checking out some twisted tales of bizarro, horror, and dark fantasy, Bizarro Bytes. I became acquainted with Jeremy via Twitter and am hoping you'll get to know him, and his stories, too. There are some free stories, an email subscription offer and other info about Jeremy at the site linked above.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Remembering and Re-booting

I was nine years old when Star Trek first showed on TV. It was on at or past my bedtime, I think it was Thursday nights at 9 or 10:00 p.m. I do remember getting to see some episodes, maybe they were summer re-runs. It was generous of my parents to let me watch something they probably thought was grown-up Science Fiction. I think it's a true memory I have of watching "The Corbomite Maneuver" with seven year old Clint Howard and his Tranya.

In '68 we moved to Taiwan and there was no Star Trek showing there. Except at a school fair where someone had obtained, who knows how, recordings and were showing them in a classroom off of a tape machine and TV monitor set up. I must have stayed for hours.

We got back in 1970 so the show had been cancelled by then. Fortunately I'd begun collecting the novelizations, the first ones by James Blish which re-told all the episodes and then later stories by various authors. Some of the early ones were really bad, but I have them all. I particularly like the ones Diane Duane and Ann Crispin wrote about Spock and Vulcan/Vulcans.

I was ecstatic when Next Generation came on, I'd seen every movie as they came out, but I was ready for a weekly fix. I watched every new series faithfully, even Enterprise, though I did give up on Voyager for most of the middle, and only coming back to catch the last episodes of the last season.

So, I've been looking forward to the new movie, even though some have told me they thought I wouldn't like it as an older Trek fan. I'm here to say I loved it.  The actors did a fabulous job with the characters and the re-boot, no quibbles here. I hope this revitalizes the franchise with a whole new generation of Trek fans, I hope the studios have the actors signed and scripts written or being written for the next one.

Most of all, I hope I can take my grandchildren to a Trek convention some day.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Do You Watch Monk? I Bet You'll Like This.

I love Monk. Lee Goldberg writes very successful tie-in books and has done some freelance episodes for the TV show ("Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico," "Mr. Monk Meets The Godfather," "Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing"). I visit his blog via my RSS reader every time he updates (he's also an author advocate par excellance and has spoken out against writing scams) today he posted this very clever fan mashup of Monk and The Rockford Files theme music - which made me rather nostalgic for that show:

Friday, May 01, 2009

Moment of Outrage for the Day

The post I found this on is titled "Fox News, still hilariously evil" - and yes, I can see that. But when I watched the clip of clips showing Fox comments for each day since Obama's inauguration, I was more outraged than amused. Yes, I'm all for freedom of the press - it's essential. But these people call themselves journalists? It's one thing to be of the loyal opposition, it's another to foment fear with outrageous hyperbole and out-right lies. I'm embarrassed to have ever called myself a Republican. I hope that cooler heads with more moderate agendas will somehow come out of hiding and take the GOP back.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Random Thing #9

Saw this today, laughed a bit self-consciously, and as a prologue to my post, I thought I'd share it (post continues below embed):




Yes, I am on Twitter. I Tweet, Re-Tweet, follow and am followed. No Twibes yet, but I know what my Twitalizer scores are (need a glossary - start here with a fun post about Twitterspeak: 66 Twitter Terms You Don't Need to Know).

I have a #BlameDawno hashtag. I signed up for Twiggit, have TwitThis (no jokes about who's the twit, ok?) on my browser toolbar, and use Ping.fm to post statuses on Twitter and Facebook simultaneously. I use cli.gs to track people clicking on the links I Tweet.

If you are a psychologist or psychoanalyst, please don't comment, or send me an urgent email with your phone number for an appointment. I know I'm sick.

I'm on way too many social network sites. Ones I'm pretty much never on include MySpace, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog...haven't been to CoComment in ages, is it still up? I was enticed to join Vox and Discus, but haven't used them. I've Dugg some stuff (and that's what I got Twiggit for). I believe there are dozens of other sites I've signed up for out there, long forgotten, as well.

I just added my beading blog to Technorati, so I'm visiting there again after a long hiatus. I've also registered at a number of forums but only frequent one, (Absolute Write) and I haven't been there that regularly lately, even after a 3 month furlough.

I follow over 100 blogs on my Google Reader, on top of that, although I admit that I don't read every one - sometimes I peek at the first few lines on the feed, othertimes I skip over them. Never miss opening up my daily webcomics though.

So, my obviously serious internet addiction is hereby offered as today's Random Thing. Thank you for reading. Now let's all go to this place called "outside" and look at that bright thing shining up there in the "sky" - they tell me it's "the Sun" and the "light" it emits is good for you - except for "ultraviolet" and you should wear your "sunscreen" when you go "outside".

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Random Thing #8

There's a conversation on Making Light (that started off*) about a NYT obit for J. G. Ballard that includes a quote saying “His fabulistic style led people to review his work as science fiction,” said Robert Weil, Mr. Ballard’s American editor at Norton. “But that’s like calling Brave New World science fiction, or 1984.” My reaction to that quote is rather rude, but that's not the point of this post.

There's discussion going in the comments at ML about about shelving books. Some have light-heartedly recommended shelving by color; others share how they shelve their books. Got me thinking about a new random thing to share.

In the past, when we had room for inside bookshelves**, I've shelved alphabetically regardless of genre, also mixing hard back and paperback books on the same shelf. The only exception is my rather large collection of Star Trek novelizations.

While those books are written by many different authors, they are all about Star Trek, so I feel they should all be shelved together (and so do the bookstores I buy them in). They all go in publication order, by show order. So the TOS books, then the TNGs, the DS9 and the VOY (very few). Never bought any Enterprise.

Then there are the ones that don't fit by series (SCE, Excalibur, Titan, etc.) those are by publication order, but each spin off story is in its own group. There are a few other series of stories (Captain's Table series, for example) that also don't fit into the main categories, those too are grouped separately.

And that's #8. At this rate it'll take me years to get to 50.


*many start on one topic and delightfully wander off into fascinating diversions
** right now the shelves and 80% of my books are in the garage

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Monday, April 20, 2009

Happy Belated Anniversary to Elements of Style & Random Thing #8

Somehow I missed that April 16th was the 50th anniversary of Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Required reading in my Freshman English Comp class in college and a handy thing to have lying around in general. I know some disagree, but I'd rather go wrong using Strunk & White's advice than try to muddle through improving my writing on my own. At least I think it sounds better to say "But that's what Elements of Style suggests." than "uh, well, it looked ok to to the MS Grammar check".

NPR did a radio commentary in honor of the anniversary - you can click on this link for the audio (you may need to click again inside the player to start it) or this link to read it - but I think it's more fun to listen to.

Random thing:

When I was younger I went to night classes at a Bible college, taught at a private Baptist Church school and was one of my church's teen group's adult leaders. I loved the Biblical Archeology class best - the whole history of the Middle East region and shards of evidence of the historical lives of the Bible figures was fascinating - and the professor had spent extensive time doing digs at places like Jericho. I also was active in various Bible studies for many years before and after that. So when I heard about a TV show that was loosely based on the story of David and Saul (the story is told in the books of Samuel and others in the Bible), set in a present, but alternate universe, timeline, I thought I'd watch. I rarely catch it on TV, so I watch the full episodes on NBC.com during lunch break or after work. I was chatting about the most recent episode with my husband today:

DH:
kings?
me: it's a mini-series
you'd hate it
me: sort of an alt-history loosely based on the story of David and Saul in the Bible and has a slight "homage to Dallas and Falcon Crest" feel to it
DH: i misread that initially and thought it said "david soul", not "david & saul"
and i was very confused
me: heh
DH: an alternate history based on david soul in the bible?
wtf?
jesus & hutch?
me: Jesus & Hutch...you're gonna get hit by lightning
DH: so long as it's cold lightning, i'm ok with that
it's HOT

And that's my random thing.

Thinking about buying Elements of Style? Click here and a few pennies go into Dawno's beading fund...



Friday, April 17, 2009

just signed up and am testing ping.fm

Monday, April 13, 2009

Don't Ever Give Up

Nearly 48, gray hair, matronly figure, never been married, lives with cat Pebbles, currently unemployed and from a 'collection of villages' - nobody expected to be amazed...but they were. Brought tears to this nearly 52 year old who stopped singing back in her 30's eyes, I'm not ashamed to admit.

Three big w00ts! for Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent. Embedding disabled on the YouTube for this, please, though, do click through and listen, you'll be happy you did.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Amazon Fail

I am appalled with Amazon's censorship tactic brought to light this weekend on various blogs and Twitter.

So, click this and add the link on your blog, too. Send Amazon a message.

Editing to add: Digital Medievalist's post "Amazon Rankings Reek of Homophobia and Puritanism"

Damn corporate idjits.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Random Thing #7

Found via an article about Vimeo on Slate.


powerlinerflyers from wes johnson on Vimeo.

I've stopped and watched similar displays (with fewer birds and wires, though) and there's something fascinating going on. I don't want to know the science behind it; I'd rather apply an imaginative reason.

Watching this with the music the video creator chose (per Slate: "Johnson sets the video to Yann Tiersen's "L'autre Valse d'Amélie," from the Amelie soundtrack, laid down with startling synchronicity to the images. ") - does it make you think these are living musical notes moving and changing, creating the tune as we watch? Or maybe it reminds you of the holes on some huge organic roll of player sky-piano music?

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Random Thing #6

First seen on Whatever, the blogger of which saw it at Gizmodo - the Peekaru.

I have to say, when I had little ones, I probably would have bought this version. It would have looked nicer than the weird slings and carry-things I wore back then - they never matched anything I was wearing and always created a huge mess of wrinkles either on the front or back of my blouses.

That's my random thing for the day.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Dawno Recommends Some Blogs - Photography

If you love photography, I would like to recommend following Nikon Sniper's blog. I think his pictures are simply lovely and cover a wide variety of themes.

Another blog of beautiful photography is The Smitten Image - lots of pictures of the beauties of nature up in Canada and the occasional Jack Russell Terrier named Benny. I've been watching the seasons change up there through her photo essay posts.

On Live Journal user pecunium (Terry Karney) posts about his photography, he also has a website with an image gallery.

Since most of my photography consists of pictures of my jewelry and the occasional family photo, I've only otherwise got a few flower pictures I'm particularly proud of:

Tiny bloom on a flower growing out of a stone wall in Ireland



Flowers at a lovely nursery I visited when I met with a friend in North Carolina:



A blooming barrel cactus at the same nursery (which was more like a private botanical garden with flowers planted all over and walkways and little streams flowing through it.



Closeup of a teal colored flower (I was amazed that there was a teal colored flower anywhere so I had to take a picture - I'm very glad I did) on a plant at the UCLA botanical gardens (this one was right in front of the chain link fence between the gardens and the street, so it must be very hardy.



I used the pictures of the cactus and the teal flower to make calendars on Cafe Press in 2007 & 2008. Didn't make one for this year, though.

Do you have a blog to recommend for beautiful photography?

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mom Song

You've probably seen some version of this (or maybe even this one) but I saw it for the first time today. Must say I grinned through the whole thing.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Random Thing #5

I'm married to a pool player. He hasn't played a lot in the last few months, but he loves the game and was active with a league for a while. Once they made it to regionals (in Bakersfield of all places) but, unfortunately, no further.

I think the mathematical aspects of the game appeal to him, he's very adept at all that math stuff. Me, I liked geometry but was miserable at algebra and got no further than the basic stuff in both. I had to take algebra 1 twice. I got one of the lowest scores in the college math placement - I remember my counselor saying that. I wonder why she felt it was necessary, I already knew I was going to have to take something remedial to get my general ed credits in math. Fortunately there was a great class that covered the requirement created especially for non-math students. We even got to go to the Huntington Library on a field trip.

Anyway, here's an amazing little clip (first seen at Suburban Guerrilla)of a pool playing prodigy.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Billions and Billions...

About an hour ago I read on Whatever that Carl Sagan's brilliant Cosmos is now available to view on Hulu. So if I seem to have disappeared, it's because I'm watching. I don't think I saw much (if any) of it live when it was running and I'm thrilled to have this opportunity. If you want to watch, here's ep. 1 - then go to Hulu to see the rest.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Big BSG Finale's Unanswered Question...Debated by Spike and Angel

Forwarding on from Organized Chaos, who linked to this io9 post Spike and Angel Debate the BSG Finale



In other news I finally got my new beading work table set up, I'm exhausted but really happy it's done. Posted about it over on my beading blog if you're curious.