dietsch ::

Enough of this shit

So I finally decided to upgrade to MT3, but first I wanted to switch the database over from Berkeley to MySQL. I went to Elise's Learning MT site, I googled up other instructions, and I followed the instructions on the MT site. However, switching databases seems to have somehow switched off MT-Blacklist, which is a side effect that none of the instructions mentioned. Had I known it would fuck with my plugins, I might not have bothered. So to my delight, then, I came in this morning to find hundreds of new spam comments on this blog. There's nothing fun about coming in every morning and having to sweep out piles of shit from my Mail inbox (in the new-comment notification) and my blog comments. Continue reading "Enough of this shit"

Indeed

Random iPod 9

The next 15 shuffled songs on my iPod: Such Great Heights, Iron & Wine Shake Your Rump, Beastie Boys Queensboro Bridge, David Mead Monkey Gone to Heaven, Pixies Reasons to Quit, Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson Vice from the Inner Soul, The Confusions Rock a My Soul, Pixies The Card Cheat, The Clash Eugene's Lament, Beastie Boys Under the Bridge, Sandy Silver I Don't Get It, Cowboy Junkies Disorder, Joy Division New Dawn Fades, Joy Division A Well Respected Man, The Kinks Police & Thieves, The Clash

Guilty by Association

You know, I don't think I'll ever "get over" being a former born-again; my experiences during that period shaped me in ways that I probably don't fully understand yet. So imagine my delight and fascination with the blog They Will Know Us By Our T-Shirts [thanks to The Morning News for the link], a blog about working in a Christian bookstore. I'd like to read every entry and add it to my RSS reader, since his comments about Passion of the Christ merchandise and Jay Jay the Jet Plane videos are insightful, honest, and funny. But beyond the humor, there's a deep look at Christian consumerism and the evangelical subculture, touching on many issues I considered when deciding whether to leave born-againism. This blog reminds me, in part, of a song by Steve Taylor: So you need a new car? let your fingers take a walk through the business guide for the "born again" flock you'll be keeping all your money in the kingdom now and you'll only drink milk from a Christian cow don't you go casting your bread to keep the heathen well-fed line Christian pockets instead--avoid temptation guilty by association Turn the radio on to a down-home drawl hear a brylcream prophet with a message for y'all "I have found a new utensil in the devil's toolbox and the heads are gonna roll if Jesus rocks it's a worldly design! God's music should be divine! try buying records like mine--avoid temptation" guilty by association So you say it's of the devil and we've got no choice because you heard a revelation from the "still small voice?" if the Bible doesn't back it then it seems quite clear perhaps it was the devil who whispered in your ear It's a Telethon Tuesday for "The Gospel Club" "send your money in now or they're gonna pull the plug!" just remember this fact when they plead and beg When The Chicken Squawks Loudest Gonna Lay A Big Egg you could be smelling a crook you should be checking The Book but you'd rather listen thank look--the implication guilty by association

blarg

great bartenders + rabbit food + lots of beer + lunar eclipse + new friends = dying

More on comment spam

Jay Allen, in discussing why he hasn't updated the master blacklist since the 9th, explains why Blacklist 2.0 is a better option for fighting spam--to wit, it allows you to moderate the addition of comments to older blog entries, thus freeing you to leave comments open on those entries and still not worry about spammers getting in. So that's another option. However, Blacklist 2.0 runs only with Movable Type 3.0 and up, to which I've not yet upgraded. I've closed off comments now on about half this blog's entries, and I've already noticed a marked difference in how much spam I receive. MT3 does offer other attractive new features, such as entry scheduling (which would allow me to write up an entry now and schedule it to be posted to my blog, say, tomorrow or next week) and subcategories (which I want; I'd love to have an overreaching New York City category and several subcats under it). So I have a couple good reasons to upgrade, and I can get in on the unsupported free upgrade, which probably works for me for now, since I've never used MT support, and I'm the only author on this blog. It's really just a matter of making the time.

Ain't no party like the ho-train party...

This morning, I was on the 6 train, and after a couple stops this person got on. Ugly person, of indeterminate gender. Unlit cigarette dangling from the mouth. Clearly really out of it somehow--deeply fatigued, strung out, drunk, something. I paid no attention, but because I was sharing a bench with this person, I kept my distance, as did everyone else who came aboard. The 6 pulled into Grand Central. At the last minute, the woman (I'm guessing/hoping) got up to leave, and I finally saw what she was wearing: a miniskirt, stilleto heels... ...and her panties down around her ankles.

iPod lustage

Drool. Let's be straight, though: I don't like the photo-album much. It would work great for simple images, but, say, a Grand Canyon panorama would look like shit on the iPod. What I love about this is the introduction of a color screen.

bouquiner

I think it's funny that just after reading this article, by a book-collecting professor, I read today's French-Word-A-Day: bouquiner (boo-kee-nay) verb 1. to hunt after, to collect, old books 2. (informal) to read I really need to read more after work, and I definitely should start studying French again, but I'm always tired and the TV's so distracting. Sigh.

Madeleine Peyroux and the Cowboy Junkies, live, tonight

Alas, it's in pukey old Boston. Which sucks, because if it were in NYC, I'd move hell and earth to be there. I mean, to me, that's like Sting appearing with U2 or something. But anyway, the show will apparently be archived on the etown site, soonish, and I will get a copy, oh yes, and it will be mine.

Wired remix

Here's coolness: The Creative Commons--in cooperation with Negativland, Wired magazine, and a group of 16 bands (including My Morning Jacket, Beastie Boys, and Chuck D)--has put together a remixable CD. You read that right. This CD comes with sampling and remix rights. Strip off beats, vocals, instrumentals, whatever, and use them in your own projects. Now, I ain't a sampler or musician, so the rights issues don't really affect me, but I think it's damn cool.

Times finally notices

The New York Times finally notices what I've harping on for a week:

While each paper has written things that might be considered unflattering about both Mr. O'Reilly and his accuser, The Post has tended to paint Ms. Mackris in a more negative light than The [Daily] News has.

...

Martin Dunn, deputy publisher and editorial director of The [Daily] News, suggested in an e-mail message on Friday that The Post might be pulling its punches because the News Corporation owns both The Post and Fox. (The News runs Mr. O'Reilly's syndicated column on its editorial page.)

Have Papers Taken Sides on O'Reilly?

Gleick critiques Newton exhibit

James Gleick, author of a recent biography of Sir Isaac Newton, critiques the NYPL's new exhibit, The Newtonian Moment. I saw this exhibit during its opening weekend, and to my embarrassment, what struck me most is how little I actually know about Newton's life and work. I don't think I've studied anything about him since high school, to be honest, aside from perhaps a brief mention in a college history course. Gleick's bio might be a good jumping-off point.

More Post hijinks?

You know, I don't really care about this he said/she said shit, but when will Page Six acknowledge its ties to Fox News? New York Post Online Edition: gossip

Charles Thompson, on Pixies

"So we were in contrast to the mainstream, and now people are saying, "Frank, you spawned a whole new generation of alternative rock music." And I'm thinking, what alternative rock music?"

Not exactly sunshine, Mr. Denver

Another choice quote, from an American opposed to the Guardian's Clark County project: "I hope your earholes turn to arseholes and shit on your shoulders."

Carver? Franzen? Whu?

I'm sorry, Mr. Post, but I suspect most American readers have no idea who Carver and Franzen are, let alone over-read their imitators. Besides, Mr. Post, would you rather see a third-rate Raymond Carver, or a third-rate Dan Brown?

Fighting comment spam

Comment spam is getting to be a big problem around here, although I'm probably still on the low-to-moderate end of the scale in terms of how much spam I get on the site. I already use MT-Blacklist, which works very well, but spammers stay a couple steps ahead of it, so it can't catch everything. I need futher protection. I'm going to slowly roll out a few changes around here, in an effort to keep it down. Most of these changes are borrowed from an entry on Elise Bauer's excellent Learning Movable Type blog. In no particular order, here are the changes I'm planning (these are adapted from Elise's entry, so visit the link above to read more): Continue reading "Fighting comment spam"

Bush v. Times

Salon's Eric Boehlert writes on the Bush admin's call to war [suffer through a Day Pass to view] against the New York Times, over Ron Suskind's Sunday magazine piece, "Without a Doubt" [registration might be required], about Bush's management style. Suskind's excellent article confirmed many thoughts I've had about George W., and his religious beliefs, reflecting back upon my own experiences. (My comments here are reproduced from comments I left at Fraction's. If you've already seen his entry, you've probably seen what I have to say.) As a fallen Christian (i.e., former born-again), I'm really fascinated by Bush's faith and the effects of such on his presidency. Many people who are alarmed by his religiosity seem to worry most that evangelicals will shanghai both his administration and the Congress and ram through ultra-conservative legislation re. personal freedoms. I worry about that, too, but I've suspected for a while that the biggest worry is exactly what Suskind lays out so clearly in his article, which is the fervor and certainty with which this admin. goes about its business. In my experiences, evangelicals have real problems with this doubt thing. Many people begin to loathe themselves when they doubt God or the church, whereas others see doubt as the necessary flip side of faith--and instead of trying to banish doubt, they try to use it to draw closer to their God. They point to Christ's prayer at Gethsemane and the lives and teachings of other holy figures, both Biblical and modern, to show that doubt is nothing to fear. I've seen sermons on doubt provoke strong reactions among congregations--some people going so far as to claim that doubt equals blasphemy and human arrogance. Cynical pastors use sermons on doubt to shore up their own power, as we can see paralleled in the Oval Office, and I think the most cynical use the emotional trama that doubt engenders in some Christians to browbeat them into giving more money. This psychosis is one main thing that drove me away from born-again-ism because I no longer wanted to deny my own rationality. I was tired of having my character impugned because I simply wanted to ask questions. So this is why I'm so intrigued by George W.'s faith, but also why the man worries me so goddamn much. I've read and watched a lot on this topic, but Suskind's the first one to really nail what I was feeling.

World's greatest invention?

Wired News profiles TV-B-Gone, a new invention by Mitch Altman that can remotely turn off just about any television. This sounds like the coolest thing ever. I hate being at the DMV, in a jury waiting room, or on a bus and having to put up with inane television programs just because other people are too stupid to bring along their own entertainment. If I'm going to be sitting on my ass in some place that's inherently boring, I'll bring a book and some music. It's a simple concept, and I don't need my reading interrupted by canned laughter from a syndicated episode of Everybody Fucking Loves Raymond.

America v. Earth, redux

KEEP YOUR FUCKIN' LIMEY HANDS OFF OUR ELECTION. HEY, SHITHEADS, REMEMBER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR? REMEMBER THE WAR OF 1812? WE DIDN'T WANT YOU, OR YOUR POLITICS HERE, THAT'S WHY WE KICKED YOUR ASSES OUT. FOR THE 47% OF YOU WHO DON'T WANT PRESIDENT BUSH, I SAY THIS ... TOUGH SHIT! --PROUD AMERICAN VOTING FOR BUSH!

Smear

So, for those entering late: Andrea Mackris is accusing Bill O'Reilly of sexual harrassment. O'Reilly is suign Mackris and her attorney, claiming extortion. O'Reilly works for Fox News, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The New York Post today publishes a report claiming that Mackris "threw a hissy fit" inside a hotel bar in Midtown Manhattan. Waiiiiiiit a second.... Remind me again who owns the Post?

Ted Turner and the death of modern civilization

Answer: Maybe it means that CNN sucks. (Good picture choice, Page Six.)

Republicans sideline Reeve bill

Days after the death of Christopher Reeve, Senate Republicans have sidelined a bill intended to further paralysis research, LA Weekly reports. Why? Cowardly posthumous political retaliation against Reeve for supporting stem-cell research.

Remembering Superman

"The best tribute we can pay to Reeve the medical research campaigner is to remember the enormous number of debilitating medical conditions that lack a celebrity figurehead, and make the case for unimpeded medical research as an unqualified good." --Sandy Starr, "Mourning the Man of Steel"

Good night, Superman

The Newtonian Moment

A new exhibition on the work and influence of Sir Isaac Newton opens today at the New York Public Library. The exhibition, which features manuscripts, drawings, rare books, and scientific instruments, runs through February 5. The Times sent science writer John Noble Wilford to review the exhibition: The Man Who Grasped the Heavens' Gravitas

Once upon a Dietsch

three-six

Happy fucking birthday to me. Is it time for my mid-life crisis yet?

Tristan and Laurenn

Sexy and Loathsome: Author J. T. LeRoy talks to Tristan Crane and Ted Naifeh Tristan Crane appears tonight with Laurenn McCubbin, at Jigsaw Gallery.

eleemosynary

"But Cash didn't go to Folsom for purely eleemosynary reasons." From When the Jailhouse Rocked (washingtonpost.com) M-W.com: "eleemosynary -- of, relating to, or supported by charity"

Boing Boing's new linking policy

Boing Boing has unveiled its new linking policy.

Get me some bookplate!

Oooooh. I likes me some Queen and Country.