Sigh. LJ, I like you well enough, but if you would just admit that you mildly borked my account (you don't even have to tell me what happened, if you're too embarrassed) we could move on, forgive and forget and all that and go back to being happy with one another. But repeatedly suggesting STUPID-ASS theories that don't match reported facts or basic computer behavior insults my intelligence and is not making me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Or: unless my understanding of computers is very, very bad, there's no way a "cached page" in my browser could explain why the password on my account has reverted to one I stopped using three or four years ago ON ANOTHER COMPUTER ENTIRELY.

Please review a few back entries and enjoy the elevator music while the writer gets some sleep.

This is just too frakking cool.

Apologies for my lack of formatting-fu: you may want to click through to YouTube for best effect. And giant props to Jessica Stover (of the very cool Artemis Eternal for totally making my day!



John

The first of the Top 10 monsters from the King of the Monsters contest has been posted today, and it's a classic of Welsh mythology.

Give it a look; we'll have more Top 10 monsters tomorrow and in coming weeks.

Forecast as of last night: 4-6", maybe higher.
Total accumulation: barely a dusting.

Hardly even justifies breaking out the Snow Zookie icon.

a note from the kitties:

The week before Christmas we were found living in a groundhog hole on the side of the road in Salem, Michigan. Beside us were the seven unfortunate bodies of our brothers and sisters, frozen and starved, but we managed to survive!

We will be making our first trip to a veterinarian (whatever that is) on Monday and we are going to be vaccinated, tested for infection and likely treated for mild frostbite to our kitty-toes. Our foster-mom says this is going to cost quite a bit of money, as we also have worms and earmites.

There are two of us, a female black-and-white and a male brown tabby-and-white. We are both domestic short-haired kittens between the ages of 5 and 8 weeks old. We will be ready to go to new homes once we are healthy and at least 12 weeks old. We are both pretty awesome at keeping our waste in the litterbox and we are getting better at cleaning ourselves now that our foster-mom has showed us how (with a washcloth, not her tongue.)

If you can spare a paypal of $1 (or more) or if you are local to ann arbor, michigan and would like to donate pop cans to our Kitten Can-Can drive, you would be contributing to our health and wellbeing. If we can raise enough, our foster-mom is going to have us spayed/neutered before we go to good homes! We don't know what that means but Boy! Doesn't it sound fun?!

a note from emily:

-- The female is younger smaller and more independent than the male. She is very playful but willing to cuddle quietly. She is definitely the caretaker. She cleans her brother and keeps an eye on him. She currently has a habit of shivering when she's purring. Depending on finances we may have to have her tested for nerve or brain damage as she suffered from hypothermia when we picked her up. I will post frequent updates on her condition on my kitty-Twitter @EMJKitties.

-- The male is more of a cuddlebug. He insists on snuggling and will lie on his back with his toes in the air if you pet his belly.

Thank you for your time and help. All paypal and contact can be sent to Emily at emilymargaretjenkins@gmail.com

Whee!

Last weekend I went a-shoppin' with a friend, and while we were out she said she was hungry and expressed interest in stopping at a little grocer she knew of that sold a lot of home-cooked food. I idled in the car with the babies while she ran in to get something to eat, and she came out with a big dish full of stuffed bell peppers and very kindly offered me one.

Indeed, they looked mighty tasty, but as we all know, it's a trap. Because when I eat bell peppers, this is what happens:
1) First, my cheeks suddenly become very very thick
2) I turn red
3) The rest of my face begins to swell up like a big ol' ugly balloon
4) I start having breathing problems.

Now, so far #4 hasn't reached the point where a benadryl and my inhaler is insufficient to keep me alive. However, I very much avoid bell peppers on the theory that that's probably not always going to be true.

The last bell pepper incident I had was at my local Trader Joe's. They have a little tiki-hut-style demo booth in the back, and they put out one or two items for you to try. Free snacks, yay! On that particular occasion they had two items they were demo'ing: roasted red bell peppers, and carrot ginger soup. I knew I was not interested in the peppers and so ignored them, but I picked up the box for the soup and read the ingredients and it had no peppers in it so I took a little sample cup of the soup and a spoon and wandered off to do my shopping. I put that first spoonful in my mouth and immediately tasted bell pepper and spit it back out again. I didn't chew it and I didn't eat it, but nonetheless I immediately had an asthma attack. In less than a minute I had also developed a blister on my lip where the pepper had so briefly touched it. Turns out TJs decided to demo the roasted red peppers IN the carrot ginger soup, but didn't bother posting that. )-:

Not a spoiler: I survived.

The experience, however, was what convinced me that I really needed to not eat or touch bell peppers. And I've been very careful about it ever since. So when my friend got in the car with her pack of peppers and offered me one, I politely declined and thought that should be good. Not quite, though: just the smell of the peppers brought on an instant adrenalin/panic reaction, presumably because my brain now firmly associates that smell with danger. Definitely unpleasant when your body is shouting at you: run away, something here wants to kill you!

So, while I love you all dearly and I have no objection to you eating all the bell peppers you'd like as long as you don't try to feed them to me, I guess I also have to ask that you not bring them around either. )-:

A bummer, as peppers are oh so very pretty to look at -- I've long regretted never casting some in bronze while I had access to the facility and the spare time to do it.

Regarding the bit in Scots-Gaelic: Càite or "Càit" is not "Kate", as I've seen a few guess so far.

The line is repeated in English when Jeremy's on the beach. There's no important information in Scots-Gaelic that isn't delivered in English, we promise.

Four year old boy found drinking a beer, wearing a girl's dress, and having just stolen presents from under his neighbor's tree.

Know how "Law & Order" takes news stories and jostles them a little to make episodes? I'm really, really hoping....

Look! Look! An actual Big Announcement (t)!

As of this coming Monday, Dec 21, Dork Tower will be running here and at the Wired.com blog, GeekDad!

Here’s the announcement from GeekDad editor Ken Denmead:

**************************

It still amazes me when cool stuff like this happens to us, but I’m not one to look a gift-muskrat in the mouth. Starting this Monday, December 21st , GeekDad will be happy (nay, ecstatic!) to start presenting the thrice-weekly geeky comic joy that is Dork Tower, by John Kovalic

If you know of Dork Tower, then you’re already squee-ing in excitement right alongside us. If you don’t know what Dork Tower is, then either you’re about to add a new layer of happiness to the Photoshop composite of your life, or you’re slowly beginning to realize you didn’t click through to the Monkey Bites blog.

From the official Dork Tower website:

DORK TOWER is for anybody who’s ever been burned being an early adapter; who have more Twitter tweets than actual Twitter followers; who’s ever gone to a Star Trek convention; who’s ever played Dungeons and Dragons; who suspects Anime is more than just a passing fad; and who’s been fragged by a Gravity Hammer in Halo III – or anyone who KNOWS one of these people. But it’s REALLY for people who know what the hip social networking du jour site is; who has bookmarked thinkgeek.com; who’s memorized every lyric to Jonathan Coulton’s ouvre; who’s cataloged which Classic Trek episodes involved the Prime Directive; and who knows the names of six people and a cat that make regular appearances in Wil Wheaton’s blog. And, of course, it’s for people who know that HAN SHOT FIRST!

DORK TOWER the multi-award-winning story of Matt, Igor, Ken, Carson the Muskrat (yes, he’s a muskrat) and Gilly, the Perky Goth. They’re trapped in a world they never made… but are nevertheless striving to create a realistic yet playable simulation thereof!

Dork Tower has, in its decade of life, existed as a stand-alone comic book, a featured comic in Dragon, Scrye and Games magazines, and one of the earliest regular web-comics online. Its creator, John Kovalic, is also the illustrator and co-creator of world-renown games Munchkin and Apples to Apples. But perhaps his greatest creation is his new daughter, whose existence has transformed him from a simple, Bruce Banner-like comics and game illustrator, into a hulking green(bay) GeekDad. Which is where we come in.

So please, let’s all extend John a warm (but slightly clammy) welcome to the GeekDad community, and thank him profusely for sharing Dork Tower with us, so we can help share it with the world!

**************************

Wired.com'sGeekDad gets around a million and a half page views per month - that's THREE FULL WHEATONS, folks! - and about a million unique visitors.

So, what does this mean for DorkTower.com? Well, lots of good stuff. While web goddess Cat and I sharpen the look and speed of DorkTower.com itself, if anything goes wrong, you can always catch the Monday/Wednesday/Friday Dork Towers at 9 am, CST, on GeekDad!. The Archives will remain here, and the new comics will continue to run here. The Archives – through a redesign of the site – will become easier to use and navigate through.

It also means that, from time to time, I’ll be doing more than just running the day’s cartoons at GeekDad…I’ll also be coming up with some specific cartoons directed at the Wired/GeekDad audience. Plus, Ken and I have one or two Sekrit Projekts which are still in the planning stages, yet which are very, very kewl.

But for the moment, I’m just thrilled to be associated with Wired.com, the GeekDad blog, and the folks at GeekDad in particular

My name is John, and I’m a GeekDad!

John

So, I need a bit of programming help with some Perl/CGI, if any of my friends out there happen to have any expertise in that area. For some reason I can't figure out, when I send cookies to the browser it is displaying the text of the cookie on the resulting HTML page. I'm sending the cookie before I write anything whatsoever to the browser, which I would have thought would do the trick.

Any ideas?

This one might take a little longer to load, so make yourself a cup of tea while it's loading. I upped the image quality since the episode is so dark, so it's a bigger file than usual. Just in time for Christmas! Nice!

[warning: this entry mentions blood and small injuries. If you are squeamish about these subjects, I recommend going here instead. It has a high itteh bitteh kitteh content.] I have a fresh bleeding cut on my hand (see, I warned you!) from fixing my car earlier. It's nothing serious, the injury or the car, but it brings to mind something I learned a while back: car designers are sadists. Everything is basically built to be in your way, hard to reach, easily breakable, or all of the above. And if you do it right, you end up with at least one freely bleeding cut and a few skinned knuckles at least. I had to loosen 2 bolts - just two measly little bolts - but almost ripped off the exhaust pipe in the process. I had to replace the starter on another car, and the intake manifold had to come off first. You need specialized tools (thank you, assholes at Saab), or a full garage to anything. It would make me appreciate mechanics more if most of them didn't have to evolve so I could fairly compare them to primates. (breathes)

Ok, I'm done ranting.

about 1800 words on Miledrop over the last week, about two-thirds of which has been painfully extracted, pixel by pixel, from an uncooperative brain. I finally worked my way past whatever weird block I was having, so about 700 of those words for tonight (which also finishes out the chapter.)

Or, to put it another way:
Miledrop
65,098 / 110,000 words (59%)

The next bit is kinda tricky, which is probably one reason why I was having trouble finessing all the little pawns and bishops into just the right places and right frames of mind. In any event, I expect I'm going to have to let this roll around a bit in my brain before I jump into what comes next, which is just as well as I'm likely to be too busy with the holidays (my folks arrive in a week) to put a lot of words down for a while.

Hope everyone else's writing, and/or other creative pursuits, are going well (-: