Monthly Naomi Photo
Ben is the official photographer of upside-down sisters.
Hidden Treasure
Remember our trip to Vancouver/Portland in 2007? It turns out that Dina never completely unpacked…she found playdough, Pringles, US coins and a map of the Oregon Zoo in her laptop bag.
The playdough, sealed in an off-brand tupperware container, was still good. Heck, it still smelled.
Snowplows Everywhere!
What’s the deal? This morning, I couldn’t get to the daycare because the neighborhood moving company had their mini-snowplows out clearing their driveway and reducing a two-lane street to one lane and three snow berms. This afternoon, I was stuck on the train tracks while the snowplows blocked the intersection further up the street (thank goodness it wasn’t rush hour!), and then I had to wait to pick up Naomi because the city was getting rid of those three snow berms.
And tomorrow is supposed to be 2 degrees, and it’s all going to melt anyway.
Gah!
Facebook Friend Revealed!
Just to show how little attention I sometimes pay to my Facebook invitations (or how much I trust my friends), I’ve only learned the identity of one of my Facebook friends today.
A while back, I received a Friend Recommendation from one of my former colleagues at A2M. The recommended friend was one N Aughty Bear, which is a obvious a jokey pseudonym, but one that fits any number of the wacky characters I used to work with.
Weeks pass. N Aughty Bear makes jokes about eating cake. I ignore them, while still wondering who the Bear is.
Turns out, it’s a viral character for an upcoming A2M downloadable game: Naughty Bear (link to Facebook Friend Page).
Well done! Any stuffed bear who seeks revenge for not being invited to a birthday party in the woods is an okay Friend to me.
More Comment Spam Stories…
…but less actual spam.
I activated the Akismet anti-spam plugin as per Netfirms’ suggestion, and it’s done a bang-up job of catching comment spam.
Now if only Netfirms would be as quick to re-activate the send mail function on my site. I’m tired of missing new and moderated comment notifications.
Batman’s Secret Identities
Ben can take his Lego Batman figures and turn them into almost anything. With the right change of legs, helmet and hands, Batman has been a shark, a security guard and, most elegantly, a Darth Vader (Ben put the helmet on backwards).
Ben doesn’t really need more toys…he can make his own!
Coalition if Necessary, but Not Necessarily Coalition
The threat of a Liberal-NDP coalition supported by the Bloc was a well-timed and much-needed punch to the nose of the bullying Tories. Stephen Harper can no longer govern by defying the fractured opposition to unseat him now that they’ve demonstrated their combined power (and given Canadians a lesson in Parliamentary democracy in the process).
Now that the Tories are back from the Parliamentary prorogue (the equivalent of running away and hiding) the economy has gotten worse and the Liberals have a new, more electable leader, and so the Tories are less likely to court a failed confidence vote.
Should that happen, a coalition, being the GG’s prerogative, is no sure thing. We’d be more likely to go straight to an election.
So let’s see if the Tories have learned their lesson and put good government ahead of their baser instincts and avoid another trip to the ballot box.
Keeping Track
My on-again/off-again listmaking tendencies are most definitely on again. To wit, the return of my running lists of the unread, unwatched, unplayed items in my collections. The lists have returned to the sidebar after an 18-month absence.
You may have noticed…they’ve grown!
(Does this mean I have a plan? Of course not!)
Oldest/Newest RPG Purchases, Part 2*
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Legend of the Burning Sands RPG, from Alderac Entertainment Not a direct conversion of CCG characters, like the benchmark Waves of Blood for 7th Sea. Instead, this advances the story 30 years and looks to the future. Represents most factions, save the Moto, Ivory Kingdoms and, inexplicably, the Jinn. Though I want more, I’m delighted this book finally exists. |
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The World’s Largest City, from Alderac Entertainment Yes, it’s a city with a Spire, but this is a city, not a cosmology. Most locations are given a trio of adventure hooks, and each section has a set of suggested quests, plus there’s surprising variation among the dens of iniquity (though perhaps too many half-elf shopkeepers). Masterwork quality. |
* The second of a two-part theme.
The Other Down Side of Comment Spam…
…when you have email notifications enabled on your WordPress install is that your host gets in a lather about the overuse of the sendmail function. To wit:
The account has been flagged for bulk e-mail use. This can occur if your account is using the Netfirms sendmail services to send large volumes of e-mail (eg. e-mail marketing, contact forms, guestbooks, forums). To activate bulk mail services on your account and prevent future interruption, please answer the questions below.
Netfirms does NOT allow e-mail marketing on its network due to the potential for abuse and blacklisting from other networks that could adversely affect other Netfirms customers. Email marketing is defined as sending more than 200 e-mails per day to people who you do not have a pre-existing business relationship with (your customers or leads), often using purchased, rented or traded lists of e-mail addresses.
1. What is the purpose of your bulk e-mail?
2. How often do you send bulk e-mail?
3. What is the size of your recipient list (number of recipients)?
4. Are your recipients notified that they will be part of a mailing list and are they given an opt-out option?
The service being referred to in this e-mail is send mail. When a message is sent from your website to an e-mail address, send mail is being used. One of the most common reasons your send mail services would be suspended is if you have Comments enabled on your wordpress blog. Spam comments, as we can see you are familiar with, will automatically send a message to your e-mail account when they are made. Every comment, if it is spam or not, will send a message to your e-mail account by default.
Because receiving over 400 spam comments results in over 400 uses of the sendmail function in violation of the bulk-email policy, I am apparently guilty of spamming…myself.
Dolts.