I Speak of Dreams

Birthday Greetings

Practical Magic

DT has conjurations for the use of emergency services personnel.  Via Maddog.

Writes pretty good, too.

Ethics of Blogging

A group of undergraduate students is conducting an online survey of bloggers about blogging and ethics (i.e., the ethics of blogging -- not blogging about ethics).  The survey is here.

(direct steal from E.G.)  which I ran across from perusing the recently updated list on the Typepad Entry page.  A nano vacation.  Is a direct steal ethical under the circumstances?)

Mandarin Design

I am tired of my blog design but I don't really know what I want. I also want to use more graphics but...well, I am hoping that the good people at Mandarin Design will be able to lift me out of the doldrums.

I Hate Blogger: I Like Shrinkette

There's a really interesting new medical blog and I'd like to leave a comment. But I can't, because I refuse to get a Blogger account.

Am I the only one that finds Blogger's coercive "just join! It's free!" marketing technique a royal pain in the heiney?

I refuse to join. I refuse to buy or wear garments that advertise the brand.

GMail Not So Great

I haven't been able to sign into my gmail account for over 24 hours. I get stuck here:

http://gmail.google.com/gmail

there's a little red box that says, "loading" that stays there for hours. I've done everything I can think of, but no dice.

Update

I went to

https://gmail.google.com/gmail

(note the s) which redirected me. Success! Fortunately nothing critical happened.

Man You Only Think You Have Problems

I had steak last night, and these days I think of Sam when I eat beef:

Last week I took around 10 old cows to Billings to sell. Damnedest thing happened when I was getting them in to load them, I couldn't see a brand on one of them. We studied this cow for the longest time and could not see sign one of a brand on her. She had our earmark but that was it. I went ahead and took her to Billings under a different permit saying the brand was unreadable, didn't want nobody claiming I stole her, and figured the brand inspectors could figure it out.

So Sarpy Sam has the expenses of: rounding up this cow; getting her old self into the trailer; hauling her down the road to Billings--with no guarantee that he's going to see one red cent for her, unless there's some way the brand magically appears on her hide.

Go read the rest of the story, and think of Sam & his neighbors and fellow cattlemen when you eat beef (or lamb).

Am I a Criminal? I'm Not Sure

I am being....an unauthorized unpaid user of someone else's wireless network rhat now.

I don't "wardrive" or warchalk, but as I wait for Al here & there I definitely check the little airport logo to see if there's a signal. This is a lot different from WarMoving If I find a signal, and I can use it, I do. Since I don't engage in illegal use of the internet, I haven't worried. Even if some spiritual folk are rousted in an area rich in irony also in officiousness.

Using somebody else's open internet connection in for lawful purposes.. That simple activity seems to have gotten Paul Timmons a misdemeanor conviction with the possibility of up to 12 months in custody. I don't get it.

Is it a crime to listen to somebody else's radio? How about watching the neighbor's cable service through the window?

Here's the story as I understand it:

Oh, No.

I didn't know Aaron Hawkins personally, I just followed his work. I stopped by a few times in the last 10 days and noticed a....gap. But it's the tail end of summer.

Today I read this.

I'm with Sour Bob here. I won't leave, I promise.

Piracy, Identity Theft, and General Weirdness

I wrote it. No I wrote it. No I did.

There have been some quite bizarre episodes of one person appropriating another person's works and/or identity, around the internet of late.

Recently, Getupgrrl, who writes at Chez Miscarriage, was being impersonated by another on a bulletin board.

Rob of gutrumbles had his blog name hijacked by:

http://gutrumbles.blog-city.com/

Very dumb. Don't get in a pissing match with a person who has no inhibitions....