busy busy busy

I am really quite busy.

I wonder how many hits The World’s Biggest Icicle post will get this winter. My guess is a grandiose 1,000. We’ll see!

Perhaps I’ll be back in a while.

I’ve been doing my blogging elsewhere for a while, obviously it shows. However, feel free to peruse the archives, as there are several years here. The older posts were imported from my old Blogger account, which explains the hideous formatting (how nice to keep the content but lose the formatting! >:( ) but you’ll probably get the gist of it. If you go that far back, anyway.

Feel free to comment as well; I do check the account regularly.
Perhaps I’ll be back in a while.

so yeah

happy christmas/hanukkah/solstice/festivus for the rest of us.

the world gets colder

It’s that time again, when the world gets colder and real people go out and catch the first real snowflakes on their tongues. This means, of course, that it is time for the World’s Biggest Icicle.

Somehow those days seemed easier, better. These days, not so much. I miss Michigan, believe it or not…with eight hundred churches in ten miles’ span, no alcohol sales on sundays, old people outnumbering the young. Okay, I don’t miss all of it, just the time that was spent there.

So go on, click on the link above. You know you want it.

Do you live under a rock?

Well, that was enough excitement to last this blog a while. Obviously nothing as comment-gathering as The World’s Biggest Icicle but it definitely carries more weight. This is the last I will mention it, unless I am able to recover the content.

Onto my next topic, such is the world of blogging…

I’ve been fired up lately about people who don’t read terms and conditions. You know, those pesky, ridiculously long disclaimers that come attached to pretty much everything in the world now, except maybe, babies. (I don’t know, I don’t have any?)

Why would you apply for a credit card without reading them? Why would you install hard- or software on your system without reading them? What kind of person are you? Do you live under a rock? Were you so ill-educated? The tragedy is, yes. Most of the world is ignorant in regards to terms and conditions. Please, read them. Don’t just assume. If you assume it’s a good deal, it really isn’t. Dumbass(es).

Would you sign a contract without reading it entirely? Would you rent a car without going over the specifics?

Slow down, people. Read it. Think about this – why would corporations come up with all that shit if there wasn’t a purpose to it? Just to give some Joe minimum wage at a summer internship? [note: sarcasm.]

Obviously there’s a lot more background to why I’m seemingly randomly bringing this up…but I really can’t be arsed to put it all down. It’s late and I’ve had a long day; I need sleep. And a new job.

Moorhead, MN visit details

If you really need additional proof, here is the entry from my sitemeter.com details:

shiny objects and bumble bees By Location > Visit Detail Visit 9,347
		[<<] [>>]
Domain Name		702communications.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address		216.239.1.# (Moorhead Public Schools)
ISP		702 communications
Location		Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : Minnesota City : Moorhead Lat/Long : 46.8464, -96.7451 (Map) Distance : 584 miles
Language		unknown
Operating System		Macintosh MacOSX
Browser		Safari 1.3 Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_5_4; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.20.1
Javascript		disabled
Time of Visit		Oct 7 2008 11:46:18 am
Last Page View		Oct 7 2008 11:53:05 am
Visit Length		6 minutes 47 seconds
Page Views		12
Referring URL		unknown
Visit Entry Page		http://shinyobjectsa…wordpress.com/about/
Visit Exit Page		http://shinyobjectsa…ebees.wordpress.com/
Out Click
Time Zone		unknown
Visitor’s Time		Unknown
Visit Number		9,347

This blog was personally attacked by a Moorhead Public School student…

EDIT ON OCTOBER 13, 2008:

Having contacted the Moorhead Public Schools Director of Information Systems & Instructional Support and superintendent and webmaster, you see I did receive a response. This evening I came home to another e-mail from the Director of Info, Dan Markert.
They were able to track down the offensive user and the student is being disciplined for his/her actions. He also stated that per their internet records, this blog was accessed only once by the offender, therefore they deem my usage of the word “spammed” to be inaccurate. Whilst we differ on opinions – in my opinion one visit to a site can result in hundreds or thousands of pieces of spam, even on only one site “visit” – I will defer to their request and remove the seemingly “inaccurate” information.

Said Mr. Markert, “One incident is contrary to what your initial email inferred, which said Moorhead Schools was spamming your website repeatedly with offensive posts.  If you have further evidence, we would be interested, but at this time our logs indicate this was a single incident, perpetrated by one student.”

Alas, I was absolutely unbelievable stupid (read: angry) and deleted the comments. I am still awaiting responses from WordPress, Akismet and Yahoo! E-mail so that I may possibly furnish Mr. Markert with the exact offensive posts. (Yes, posts. There were four. Four? That’s it, you may say? Well, it’s certainly more than ONE or TWO and thus qualifies in my book as more than “a single incident.”

The moral of the story: a high school student using a computer and internet access at his high school sent me four obscene and threatening (in that he decided to use the name of “Killer of Papa Bees” as one of his “names” which directly is a threat of harm against MY father…you would have to see it in the context of the Queen Bee page, had I actually saved and/or approved it) comments which I literally labeled as spam in my WordPress Comment Moderation Queue – and he was caught. Per Mr. Markert’s request, I have edited some of the content of this and the relating posts.

On another note, I would like to apologize for my inflammatory use of the word “spam” “spammed” and “spamming” – I should have stepped away for a few, then came back to re-write both my e-mail and the post which is below, in edited format. I was not “spammed” by Moorhead Public Schools. In fact, I was personally attacked by a Moorhead Public High School student using a computer and internet access at his school.

Thank you to the time and effort spent by Mr. Markert and his team. I really hope I did not cause undue hardship on their staff, but I felt that it warranted prompt action and serious attention. If I am able to recover the content, I will not only e-mail it to them, but will post it in its entirety in a blog so you can all see for yourselves.

In the meantime, happy blogging, and woe to those who think they can get away with obscene crap like this on my blog.

—– semi-original post follows – edits and new comments from me are within {brackets} —–

I really couldn’t help myself (read on…). How do you feel when you receive a comment that is obscene, vulgar, rude and completely out of line? A bit indignant, right? What if it’s not one comment, but four? Ten? Would you then consider it spam? Yes, I would. {{{ Personal opinion – it stays. }}}

Certain immature people think it’s hilarious or harmless, when in fact it could really push another human being over the edge. Such comments are a version of internet bullying – especially when it is personally directed from one human being to another. People hide behind computer monitors, typing things they wouldn’t dare say to your face.

Normally, I shrug things like this off very easily, but something about tonight, whether it’s because I spent the entire day dealing with people who were rude and ignorant or because the IP address was attached to a school district, I didn’t shrug this one off.

What one, you may ask? Actually it was quite a few rude, vulgar and obscene comments left by one person, on several different posts, coming from the same IP address. (See previous post.) {{{ This is true. }}}

Among other things, the immature excuse for a person directed comments at my family, referring to us as “fags.” {{{Big edit for posterity. Content removed. }}}

While I am not the most “politically correct” in my writing (yes, I use words like “fuck” and “cunt”), there is absolutely no reason for anyone to direct obscene comments my way – ESPECIALLY not while using a STATE-FUNDED, TAX-FUNDED computer on a tax-funded internet server. {{{ I still stand by this statement, as should anyone. There are legitimate uses, and this was not one of them. }}}

In addition to this and the previous post, I have also sent a lovely letter to quite a few important people over in Moorhead, MN. Would you like to see? Of course you would! {{{ It was lovely, even if it was hyper bi-polar. }}}

…

“Tuesday, October 7, 2008 9:34:07 PM
{{{ e-mail addresses removed because I’m being nice. a simple google search would help you here if you really cared. }}}

Dear Webmaster, Superintendent of Moorhead School District and Director of Information Systems & Instructional Support:

I would just like to make you aware that someone using your internet server(s) {{{ has submitted several obscene posts to my blog on WP. }}}
While it is not the usual, automated {{{ crap }}} one comes across every day, it is disturbing and rude nonetheless.

I had quite a few rude and obscene comments logged into my moderation queue today, all coming from the following IP address: 216.239.1.2 which is linked under ARIN to:

702 communications 702-VAL-ED (NET-216-239-0-0-1)

                                  216.239.0.0 - 216.239.31.255
Moorhead Public Schools NETBLK-702-MPS-1 (NET-216-239-1-0-1)
                                  216.239.1.0 - 216.239.1.127

 {{{ This information is a matter of public record and can be found easily online,
 therefore it also stays in this post. }}}

If this IP information is incorrect, please disregard this e-mail. If it is correct, I would urge you to take action – in at least a form of discussion amongst your students, faculty and staff on what is and is not, proper internet usage on state and tax-funded school computers. {{{ I still think a discussion is a great idea.
Obviously the IP information was correct, otherwise we wouldn’t have come to this point. }}}

Please contact me should you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

{name withheld}  {{{ It really isn’t important for WP readers to have that information. }}}

Owner/Editor of a blog on WordPress.com, which I prefer remains anonymous. {{{ I did give this information up, as you can see. }}}

{{{ edit }}}

Would you believe I have also received a prompt response?:

“For us to track access to your blog we would need to search by domain name.  What iws the name of your website so we can search our internet records.

Thank you,

Dan Markert

Director of Information Systems & Instructional Support

Moorhead Area Public Schools       Go SPUDS!

2410 14th Street South

Moorhead, MN 56560

Office: 218.284.3345

FAX:   218.284.3333

E-Mail: dmarkert@moorhead.k12.mn.us“

{typo duly noted.}

Well readers? I know you’re out there…what do you think?

Edit: I have provided my blog’s url to Mr. Markert so we shall see if this incident was indeed from their system(s) or from someone hijacking their IP.

{{{ End these edits. }}}

{{{Removed}}} from the IP List of Spammers…

{{{ Removed }}} from the IP List of Spammers today: {{{ note that I keep track of these things; see above tab on page. }}}

216.239.1.2

{{{ Edits for content, even though Moorhead Public Schools and I differ on the definition of the S-word. }}}

Some child surfed the internet whist at school and decided to leave four very unimportant comments, which of course ended up in moderation. To this bored school kid, way to go. You grasp the concept of three-lettered words. Too bad you didn’t make it past 3rd grade. It must hurt to be such a sad, lonely and pathetic soul. Get a life. {{{ He apparently made it to high school. Good luck, dude… }}}

cali

cali came and went, and here are the pics to prove it, gallery styleeee…(only several of almost 1,000 photos taken! )

in California

well here I am, in California! after a series of fortunate events, I am posting today from a comfy couch with a cousin nearby and a palm tree right off the balcony.

I’ll do pics later, I’m a bit sleepy yet.