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Because Weasel hearts you very much

weasel hearts minions

And because Weasel hearts every damn one of you, and because you apparently cannot type three words without making some goofy-ass typo, I have removed comment preview and added comment edit.

This necessitated upgrading my WordPress installation to accomodate the Ajax edit comments plugin — a terrifying hour by dawn’s early light. My FTP client shit the bed after I’d already biffed my old install, so I panicked and uploaded each of the several hundred necessary files individually, during which time my database threw up on itself and my blog collapsed in a blubbering heap. Oh, it was like the emergency ward at Our Lady de los Casos Desesperados on a Saturday night.

So, we’ll see how this shakes out. If I missed a file or this plugin misbehaves, we could have intermittent weird shit and occasional wobblies.

Truly, greater heart hath no stoat.

UPDATE: It’s not that I don’t love you, it’s that I’m too stupid to get the plug-in to work. I’ve nearly deep-sixed the blog (twice!) trying to fix it. So I’ve re-enabled preview, and I’ll leave edit in place in its current non-functioning mode for now, while I attempt to break the blog for reals.

UPDATE: Got it! Thanks to some direct help from the plug-in’s author, Ronald Huereca. Damn right I hit his tip-jar this morning! Now to tinker with the colors ‘n’ stuff. I tol you people I hearted you!

I finally remembered: I saw this at Steve‘s, I heard about it from Mike who heard about it from Hazel. I think I’ve got everything tweaked to my satisfaction. Suggestions welcome. I mean, I’ll probably blow it off and make fun of you behind your back, but go ahead — suggest something.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:51 am

Ha! So far, everything’s working fine EXCEPT the edit comment plugin…which thinks it’s installed correctly, but doesn’t appear to be working.

Stand by while I divide my time between tinkering with it and getting the upstairs ready for the floor guys to come on Wednesday.


Comment from this is me, testing
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:54 am

Okay…can I edit this?


Comment from Well, this sucks
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:57 am

Was all my hearting in vain?


Comment from Hmmm
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:07 am

I wonder if this is a cache issue. I dasn’t know how to clear the blog’s cache.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:07 am

Go, Weaz! Debug!!

Debug like the wind!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:11 am

It pubbed my comment, but it shows (here in McGooland) with heavy bars above and below the comment. And I can’t edit it.

Just kibitzing.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:12 am

Morning, McGoo. All done shooting up for the day? Ever’body, McGoo has


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:14 am

Beats the hell out of me, McGoo. I’ve seen this plugin work on somebody else’s blog (I forget which). It thinks it’s correctly installed — it’s giving me plugin options under admin — but, nothing happens.

Frankly, I’m so darned happy to be seeing my blog rather than a terrifying page of MySQL errors that I’m not too fussed.


Comment from Pupster
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:18 am

Testes


Comment from Zzzzzz
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:19 am

Wow. Weird. Where did those bold lines come from, and why are they gone now?


Comment from Zzzzzz
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:20 am

Yipe! It’s back!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:21 am

A page full of MySQL errors would send me right off the deep end.

You’ll get it.

Idle curiosity: do you have stats on “preview” usage? I noticed that previewing my own comments doesn’t help me. Seems my comments need to be irrevocably published before the typos show up. It’s a perversity of the universe thing, I guess.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:22 am

Don’t answer my question! You’re busy.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:26 am

Nah. I’m not busy. I was just about to duck out and buy a steak for this afternoon. I’ll debug this slowly and idly, like usual.

I biffed preview. I never noticed any problems with it, but then I wasn’t really motivated to use it, was I?

Yeah, even with the backups, refreshing a blog halfway through the update procedure is not for the faint of heart. I shouldn’t have done refreshed it, really. I knew it would be busted — it’s supposed to be, until the last step, which is running update.php.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:44 am

While you’re waiting for WP to finish piddling around, you might go visit Last Of The Few:

http://www.thelastofthefew.blogspot.com/


Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: March 15, 2008, 10:34 am

I don’t need no stinkin’ edit button. I ain’t no stinkin’ commie.


Comment from I bought a big ol’ t-bone
Time: March 15, 2008, 11:04 am

McGoo, that lady’s breasteses hurt to look at.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 11:20 am

Yep. They’re hefty. Makes me wonder what internal structure reinforces them.

I was wondering which cut of beef you decided on. T’s are tasty. Baked potato? Asparagus? Salad?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 11:33 am

Baked potato. Green salad. I make one up at the salad bar and it’ll last for days…much more efficient on your own than trying to keep in stock of lettuce, carrots, mushrooms, cukes and so on.

Hm. I may knock this down and try reinstalling, now that I have my FTP thingie working.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 11:37 am

Go for it.

I’ll watch…


Comment from Anonymous
Time: March 15, 2008, 1:43 pm

testy testy


Comment from Anonymous
Time: March 15, 2008, 1:46 pm

Well, THAT shaved a few minutes off my life. Near as I can figure it, my database server had an ENTIRELY COINCIDENTAL twenty minutes of downtime immediately after I reloaded my WordPress software…making it look like something I did slaughtered my blog. Gawd, that was awful. Databases scare me, because I don’t understand them. I swore on the spot I would nevereverever mess with the stuff under the hood again.

It won’t last.

McGoo…do you see that big black bar on your comments and nobody else’s? Because I’m seeing that only on my own posts, and only when I’m not logged in as admin, but not otherwise. It makes me think that plug-in is doing something. Something retarded, it is true…but something.


Comment from porknbean
Time: March 15, 2008, 1:58 pm

Yep. They’re hefty. Makes me wonder what internal structure reinforces them.

There aren’t any. Just imagine what those suckers look like without the super reinforced spandex holding them up. Probably clang together around her navel.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 2:10 pm

Oh, gosh yes, PnB. It would break men’s hearts to be in a typical women’s locker room.

Hooters untethered often do amazing, asymmetrical and gravity-induced acrobatics.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 2:35 pm

It’s a truism in writing that however much a manuscript is proofread by however many experts, when the (evenutally published) book is pulled from the shelf, the page it is randomly opened to will display a glaring typo.

I have proven this myself. Several times.


Comment from porknbean
Time: March 15, 2008, 2:50 pm

Hooters untethered often do amazing, asymmetrical and gravity-induced acrobatics.

Oh yes. My neighbor, a nice looking blonde with generous bosoms, gave birth and proceeded to nurse her puppy. I went over several weeks after to welcome the little booger. She met me at the door wearing a mumu that your grandma would wear, and it was beyond obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. I swear, those things were swinging near her hips. Don’t know how they would even fit in a bra seeing as how she would have had to roll them up or something to stuff them in.

She laughed and told me the jokes her father-n-law was ribbing her with about them African women in National Geographic magazines. Then said because of how they dangled, she didn’t even have to hold her baby to nurse…she just let him lay in her lap.

Remember the ‘do your ears hang low’ ditty? Yes, my friends, it was really meant for boobs.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:41 pm

Sorry Weaz – I was napping.

Test message: Goths smell.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:43 pm

Yes, Weaz, I see a thick bar above my test comment and a thinner bar below it. No editing seems to be possible. I’ve clicked all over – left and right. No joy.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:46 pm

Hooters untethered….

*huh*. Sorry. What were you saying, PnB?

What? Break my heart? Your ass! NOTHING about being in a women’s locker room would break my heart.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:52 pm

Now I see uniformly thick bars above and below ALL my comments, with a thinner one after my last comment.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:53 pm

Yep. Weaz, you’re obviously getting there. The bars are (I believe) showing me “my” comments, and by implication, what I am permitted to edit (I think). Still no joy on editing.


Comment from porknbean
Time: March 15, 2008, 3:57 pm

What if it were a locker room filled with Rosie O’Donnells?


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:13 pm

I’m not seeing any dark lines or anything unusual. Maybe I’m not squinting enough.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:14 pm

Rosie O’Donnell: fat, ugly, stupid. I’d do ‘er.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:16 pm

Which fold, jw? There’s plenty of Rosie for all of us!

Yeah – I went away for a bit and came back and the dark lines are gone.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:17 pm

Now I have the thicky above and the thinny below again, Weaz.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:18 pm

Same as before – my comments have thick bars above and below, with a thinner one below the last comment.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:22 pm

Well, duh. That last thinner line is the separator line between comments and the “write a comment” sentence.

I do not like thick lines here, madam. I am a doofus, I am, I am.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:29 pm

Test comment:

Do your boobs hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them over your shoulder,
like a continental soldier?
Do your boobs hang low?


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:30 pm

Ok, now I’ve got a thick dark line below my last post (“I’d do ‘er”). There’s also a thinner dark line under Steam’s last post (which is also the last post here).


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:30 pm

No change, Weaz. All of my comments have thicky’s above them. I wish someone else would comment so they might change.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:31 pm

and now thick above my last post.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:33 pm

Well, as far as problems go, a thick line randomly appearing in the comments is right up there with not quite enough peanut butter on my sandwich. Heads will roll!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:34 pm

I still have thicky’s above my comments. JW’s does not, as seen here.

I’ve been imprecise: the thick bar is below my name/date info and above the comment body.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:36 pm

And some (three?)of my earliest comments no longer have bars. Looks like there is a fixed limit to them or sumpin.

I still see no bars on jw’s stuff. Only mine.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:38 pm

I test again for a reason.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:40 pm

Yep. There is a five-bar limit on my comments. When I post this comment the bar on “Test comment: Do your boobs hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?” will go away I bet.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:40 pm

Nope. I have six bars now.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:51 pm

I can either post a comment or go peel a raw turnip and brazenly eat it in front of my monitor – and risk choking if (as often happens) someone says something really funny.

I think I’ll do both.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:52 pm

Post and peel and eat – not choke.


Comment from It’s a weasel!
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:55 pm

Ahhh…sorry. Nap. WOT a nap. I’ve been shorting myself on sleep all week, so I went down like a great sack of weasel.

Yes, there’s a time limit on editing. You can change it; the default is 15 minutes. So that black bar is surely this plug-in trying to do its thang. I thought maybe it was a css issue, since a lot of my graphic elements are set to have a big black bar over them (like headlines). I haven’t found it yet, though.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:56 pm

The time on my PC is 3:56PM I think the bars are on a timer.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:00 pm

15 minutes is plenty, I would think. My typos usually leap out at me as soon as I post.

That’s right – you’re basement camping, aren’t you. Sorry. Bet the cats find it novel.


Comment from It\’s a weasel!
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:09 pm

Okay, I reactivated preview. Uncle B was a wiener about it.

The way the editing dingus is supposed to work, you’re supposed to be able to click your name or the body of the message and edit for 15 minutes. It’s supposed to say so above the comment somewhere, and there’s an (optional) countdown clock.


Comment from It’s a weasel!
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:10 pm

Kind of liking the basement, frankly. It’s dark and cozy.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:14 pm

Glad you’re liking the basement. It would be different.

Your default timer works. One of my bars disappeared right on time after 15 minutes. Obviously things are trying to work.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:44 pm

As a diabetic, I love that pic with Wilford Brimley. Thank you for brightening my day!


Comment from It’s a weasel!
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:49 pm

It’s not original, Musli. Though you probably knew that. A Google images search of “diabeetus” brings up many variations.

Though I did add the lens flare. Without color, his eyes just didn’t look menacing enough.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 5:57 pm

Wilford Brimley Diabeetus Remix

Lot more where that came from.


Comment from This also is me
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:01 pm

Hey, we passed 50K today!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:12 pm

50 Large! Whoa.

That Wilfred B link is outstanding!


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:23 pm

Sorry to hear the news, McGoo.

On the bright side (there’s a bright side?!) you can use it to scandalise people. A woman I know has it and she just shoots up anywhere, any time. The look on people’s faces when she gets her works out in the middle of a meeting is… priceless. Just priceless.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:32 pm

When I went to Spain on a class trip, a few days into the trip my teacher pulled me aside and asked me very politely to be more discrete. I used syringes and vials then, and she said that she had no problem with it but she was worried what the Spaniards would think. They might take it the wrong way. I chuckled and realized she was right.

In America, now when classmates or others see it, they joke about it. All about me shooting up. I have fun. They’re joking around but don’t freak out (which I fear the most).

At one time, for a few years after being disgnosed (I was diagnosed when I as 16, about 12 years ago), my mother had my brother, sister, and father stand or sit around me so that no one else in a restaurant could see me. She was offended that some people thought it a spectacle. I didn’t mind.

I had never seen that W. Brimley picture before! Woohoo! Thanks, Your Grace!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:45 pm

Thanks, all. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, it runs in the fambly and was expected by me years ago. No surprise at all. I lasted longer than almost every relative before getting it.

The only thing I didn’t ever consider is that it’s interfering with me messing with Goths and Emos. That’s my hobby! This will never do, so I’ll get the sugar under control asap.

And I’m going to blame the Goths for it, too. I mean, why not? 🙂

Weaz – did you table the edit function for the mooment?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:46 pm

The moment, the moment. Jeez.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:47 pm

Me, I like “preview.” It affords me a second opportunity to ignore my typos. What more can one ask of a blog?


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:50 pm

JWP – Not mcuh


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 6:52 pm

No, the edit’s still there. It will happily co-exist with preview. I biffed preview because I didn’t know anyone was using it (I find it annoying that it doesn’ automatically scroll you down to see your preview). But Uncle B said he uses it, so back it goes. I downloaded a newer version, but it’s still got that annoying feature.

But I’ll leave the brain-dead edit in place for now. I filed a bug report with the creator, so in case he decides to cruise by and see what I’m talking about, I’ll leave it there. Sorry about the black boxes.

Maybe I’ll even get a brain storm and fix it myself.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:01 pm

McGoo: now when you go to Pakistan and sit down for dinner, everyone will admit they have diabetes. It’s like an epidemic. (Now you and I can talk the secret language of diabetics! All getting-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night, the low blood sugar shakes, and the sublime near-orgiastic feeling of drinking water when one’s blood sugar is high.)


Comment from Ronald
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:03 pm

Trying to see what’s going on 🙂


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:05 pm

I used to be terrified of needles. A couple of years before I was diagnosed, I literally wrestled with a phlebotamist.

And, as luck would have it, a couple years later I had to start sticking myself with various pins and needles for the rest of my life.

Irony.

Or, rather, never be afraid of needles. It’s an invitation, I tell you.

No offense, glorious McGoo, but I’m still divided whether it’s better to have type I or type II.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:10 pm

Hi, Ronald! Everybody be nice to Ronald, he’s the Edit guy!

I have to confess, I write really screwed up code…so I may have customized something I shouldn’t’a. But, like I said, I loaded a fresh WordPress…so, really, my CSS is all that should be affecting it.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:11 pm

Oh, and I haven’t touched the plug-in’s code or CSS (I looked at it…okay, I think I changed one color to gray. You may have noticed a bit of a theme going here).


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:14 pm

Thanks, Weaz. It was another “duh” moment for me. All I had to do was post and then look for the edit bars.

Musli – yes! When the sugar is way high, water is pure ecstasy! I have sat on the toilet weeing my brains out while simultaneously guzzling half a quart of good ol’ H2O. Yum!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:15 pm

Go, Ronald! You da man! Atta boy, Ronnie!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:19 pm

Edit Guy Ronald.
Fixing our edit functions
So we don’t have to.

Edit Guy Ronald
Hero of the First Order!
Pounding dat source code.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:26 pm

Whoa! I bet Ronald is actually Ronald Huereca, the guy who wrote the plug-in!

This one has gotten a lot of good word-of-mouth. I heard about it on my daily blog round. You should be proud!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:27 pm

Whoa. I better go bathe.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:27 pm

How, exactly, does one edit one’s comment? Is this done after one has hit “Post”?


Comment from hmmm…
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:30 pm

test


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:31 pm

Welcome, the Right Honourable Ronald!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:32 pm

Shh. *That’s him!*


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:33 pm

*I could tell – that was a professional “hmmm”*


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:39 pm

Well, he sent me a suggestion by email. It didn’t work, but he’s identified the problem, anyhow (the jQuery file is failing to load, for some reason).

I always feel awed when The Actual Person communicates with me.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:42 pm

You should be promoted! From Her Grace or Her Highness, Princess of Sexes (Middlesex, Wessex, Essex, Sussex)?

Why is there no Nussex or something?


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:43 pm

From Her Grace to Her Highness… I meant.


Comment from hmmm…
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:48 pm

Actually, hmmm is me.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:48 pm

I just read about jQuery. It’s the part that intercedes when we hit “post” and – long story short – gets between us and the permanent comment file/cache or whatever for 15 minutes. That way our comments get displayed but we can edit our boo-boos before they get cast in concrete.

And the little fuck is not being loaded – hence no editing.

Or its something else entirely.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:49 pm

Oh! Well, you’re a pro, too. I get my hmm’s mixed up.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:52 pm

Thank you for explainucating it to me, McGoo.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:52 pm

Go find your source code line that loads jQuery and make sure it’s src’ing the correct local path for the file?


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:53 pm

Who is me?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:54 pm

Weaz.


Comment from hmmm…
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:55 pm

Testy.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:58 pm

wampum


Comment from hmmm…
Time: March 15, 2008, 7:58 pm

That, too.


Comment from hmmm…
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:00 pm

Possibly a permissions thing, but I have now got to the point in my boozing that I should be scrambling around in the guts of my install. I’ll revisit tomorrow.

Damn decent of the man to drop by, though.


Comment from hmmm…
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:01 pm

Should NOT.

Hey, I wish we had an edit function.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:03 pm

Wise decision, madam!

Pretty neat to have the Creator come by.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:08 pm

Uncle B actually computes better drunk. I mean, hardware and everything. It’s amazing to behold.

He’ll start assembling his new computer at Booze O’Clock, and by the time I’ve got my head on the table blubbering about my mother, he’s setting the dip switches on his hard disc controller.

He does occsionally teach a component to fly, though.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:10 pm

Disk. It’s disK for magnetic media and disC for CDs and DVDs.

A bit of editorial trivia. I used to have to write my own documentation.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:20 pm

You just cleared up an ongoing puzzle for me! I was never quite sure which was correct – disc or disk.

C for CD. K for … the other.

I target-shoot waaaaaaayy better after – um – getting phase-shifted.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:30 pm

I perform on most manual dexterity tasks MUCH better after the first few. My senior year in high school, my favorite evening off was a roll of quarters and a pinball machine at the local (I could walk to it) bar. I fall into that narrow period of time when 18 year olds could drink in the States.

The first one or two brandy alexanders (hey, I had an ulcer before there was a cure) and my game got better and better.

My game was Jungle Queen (or the two-player version, Jungle Princess). I always swore I would buy me one if I ever became a rich weasel, but that’s before I learned how hard it is to maintain an old mechanical pinball machine.

The last time I saw Jungle Queen was at a fair in Rhode Island. I was in college. I ran up to it happily like an old friend and promptly won a free game off it.

Then a young person with Down’s syndrome shoved me away and played my free game.

True story.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 15, 2008, 8:39 pm

Ah, I understand now.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:05 pm

Ah – the booze/computer thing is easy to explain.

Like most of us old farts, I started computing way before there was any such thing as training. Or even knowledge.

You wanted a computer? You damned well built one. You didn’t know how? Tough. Figure it out. And there was no Internet to help you!

As a consequence, I have this ever-abiding sense of not knowing what the fuck I am doing. Even when, in my bones, I sense I have it all worked out (and that’s rare) a little voice is always nagging away saying, ‘You don’t really know what you’re doing, Uncle B. At any moment you might hit a key with one of those great big, clumsy badger claws and format your hard drive (all 5Mb of it)’.

If you’ve ever groaned while you watched a newbie, too scared to type for fear of ‘breaking something’, that’s the same mechanism.

A judicious application of booze, however, strips away such inhibitions. ‘Of course I know what I’m doing! I’m a fucking badger aren’t I?!’

The trick is getting the quantities right.

The Weasel believes in measurement. I don’t think that works because your metabolism can’t be measured, so what is a safe level for ripping out your motherboard, running it under the cold tap, giving it ten minutes it with a hair drier and popping it back in (just for the hell of it) one day, might be, ‘You’re my beshtest pal, Weeezul! Didsh I ever tells you dat stoats is the finesht creatures on d’earth an’…..’

You can get into all sorts of trouble that way. Believe me.

Ctrl+Alt+Del


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:09 pm

Oh, yeah and it’s disc. With a ‘C’. For everything.

Lend some people a perfectly serviceable language and….

Next thing you know, nobody makes anything anymore, or does anything. They offer ‘solutions’.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:12 pm

Okay, now we’re fighting about it. He says there’s no fucking “disk” with a K, ever.

I mean, that’s just retarded.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 15, 2008, 9:19 pm

Isn’t it the French that say “disque”? I wonder of they distinguish between types?


Comment from porknbean
Time: March 15, 2008, 10:07 pm

Disc is a variation of disk.

A disk is what you have in your back.

I have a pack of music ‘discs’ sitting right here in front of me. Spelled d-i-s-c (disques in fwench).


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 2:08 am

You had to bring the French in, eh?

I propose we end this discussion by decreeing that henceforth and forever, it will never be “disc” or “disk” but rather always “disck”. Hm?


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:07 am

I hate pedantic bastards who cut and paste from dictionaries.

So here’s the OED:

“disk var. of disc (esp. US & Computing).”

And ze Franche have rien to do with it. It was the ancient wops with – ‘discus’, who nicked it from the olive munchers. Now they did spell it with a ‘k’.

But since English took it from the Latin, I’m sticking with ‘c’ and shall continue to snarl angrily at the shade of that meddling fool, Noah Webster, whenever one of his half-baked notions wanders into my sights.

‘Center’ indeed!

Now, is there anyone left I haven’t offended?

Good, then I’m off to eat worms.


Comment from See what I have to put up with?
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:49 am

Only a Brit would think “esp. US” means it’s wrong.

Yay! I got it working!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:54 am

As far as I’m concerned the OED settles the matter. After all, everyone else just borrows the language: the British own it. They have the actual sales receipt and Title to it somewhere. HOLY SHEEP SHIT! MEIN FUHRER – I CAN EDIT!

Besides, I read “The Professor and the Madman”, so pbbbth!
*raspberry sound*


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:58 am

That is sooo fucking cool, Weaz! You are a Goddess!

And the friggin’ timer works and everything!!!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:01 am

Nobody else has the Utter Coolness that is Weasel’s site!

Be envious, peons! This site is Da Place!


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:04 am

Well done, Weasel!

Mmm… nice worms, these.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:04 am

Heh. When the timer seconds hit zero, the page does a cute little epileptic jiggle because – briefly – the black band need only be one line long – not two.

That’s so cute.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:08 am

Worms. They aren’t just for breakfast anymore.

Weaz – I bet you’re gonna want to shorten your “edit text advisory” to one line (Or to a consistent two lines. Hee!). I have about four “active” comments on the page and it’s periodically jumping around like it’s got ants in its pants. I find it quite amusing, but others might not. Sorry to sound critical.

You were right last night! You slept on it and fixed it this morning. Or did the Creator do it?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:23 am

Yes, I’m going to have to jigger with the text and fonts and stuff (and color! Thou shalt not put color on Weasel’s blog!). It’s easily customizable, though.

I found and fixed it this morning, based on his information. When I upgraded WordPress, I didn’t copy up everything I needed to in the \wp-includes folder. I was anxious not to overwrite my custom weasel smilies (smilies live in that folder) so I was doing that area manually instead of dragging and dropping the whole thing. I missed one.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:27 am

Ah-hah. I’m glad it wasn’t something more serious – like having to give up Weasel-Smilies.

Duh. I didn’t even notice the color.

It works beautifully, Weaz, and looks kinda cool on the screen. I’m looking forward to using it. Congratulations!


Comment from don’t mind me
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:41 am

I made a comment!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:46 am

…and I read your comment! There’s a subtle symmetry in these actions – yes? You write – I read.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:50 am

Oooh!

Gray (grey?) Edit Bar instead of black – check. (Nice).
Colored text gone – check.
Edit Bar consistently one line long – check.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:52 am

“Hurry!” exclamation – check. (Nice).


Comment from don\’t mind me
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:53 am

I’m trying to make it fade away as much as possible without making old people crazy. Because, I’m guessing we’re mostly old people on this bus.

I have to do this as anonymous, incindennly, since the admin sees something totally different.

Next: testing spam blocking! It rechecks edited messages against Akismet, just in case somebody types an innocuous message and then goes back and spammifies it. Clever, no?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:55 am

The gray really toned down the bar nicely. Its not “in your face” anymore. Just an option (albeit, one unavailable at lesser sites), should the commenter decide to avail him- or herself of it. Calm.


Comment from spam check
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:58 am

Okey dokey. Spam test…

Link
Link
Link
Link
Link

Zounds! It is letting me do this!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:01 am

Whoa. I would have never thought to spamify a comment on the second pass. Those cunning assholes – they don’t miss a trick.

Am I seeing gray-shade changes as I post? You’re tweaking on-line – yes? Cool.

And – yes – I don’t think there are many “kids” on this site.

Grocery store. I’m of a mind to make some more soup. Fresh veggies!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:03 am

5 links from a “poster”? Oooh. Not good. kbai.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:03 am

The paler gray is perfect.


Comment from spam check
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:04 am

Yes. I’m tweaking in realtime. Gosh, that sounds dirty.

It’s letting me go back and put links in, but bouncing if the links come in the first post. I’m inclined not to be worried about that. I think the spams we’re getting are from bots. I don’t think for a moment actual human beings are showing up and would be willing to hang around and game the system. If I’m wrong, I’ll worry about it then.

Soup? Hmmm…hey, I think I’ll make chili! It’s that kind of day..


Comment from one more thing
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:14 am

Let me see if I can get it to generate and error.

Yep. That works. (It gives gentle remonstrance if you click ‘save’ on an edited comment you haven’t edited).

Okay! Think that’s it. Anybody have comments or suggestions, let me know. I can give you more time or make the test a bit more readable or…whatevs!


Comment from steveegg
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:27 am

If I would’ve been around yesterday, I could’ve helped. There is an annoying edit you have to do for the comment preview and the comment edit to play nice together. Guess I should’ve warned you about that.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:27 am

Man! Are you guys getting a buttload of email spam lately? Because I sure am!


Comment from steveegg
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:29 am

Man! Are you guys getting a buttload of email spam lately? Because I sure am!

Yep. Guess the spambots have figured out advanced harvesting techniques.

And yes, editing works, but only if you accept cookies. One more thing; you really should have “Check Edited Comments Against Akismet (if installed)?” set to “Yes” (that’s in Options >> AJAX Edit Comments).


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:33 am

That’s right, Steve — it’s your site I’ve seen this thing in action on. I remember now. And ColdFury is where I learned what it was. So far, I’m not having any problems with the preview and edit coexisting — though we may well not need both.

Is it your impression that it slows down comment display at all? I’m finding on this comment thread (an unusually long one for me) that — at least in the admin mode — it goes back and puts the “Edit…Delete…Spam” links at the bottom, which makes it jump after initial display.

My computer and connect are acting really very strangely today, though. So much so that I’ve got a virus scan going on, just to be sure.

Also, I upgraded my Opera AND my WordPress over the weekend, so lots of stuff feels funny. Yeah, see that’s why I’m not a good scientist: forever changing too many variables before I test a hypothesis.


Comment from steveegg
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:41 am

Is it your impression that it slows down comment display at all? I’m finding on this comment thread (an unusually long one for me) that — at least in the admin mode — it goes back and puts the “Edit…Delete…Spam” links at the bottom, which makes it jump after initial display.

It will slow down the display just a bit for admins. You can turn that off in the Users >> AJAX Edit Comments (“Turn Off Comment Post Links?”).

My only gripe is I have to right-click links because left-click will engage the edit. I haven’t found a workaround for that yet that also lets registered users edit their own comments.

I personally like having both preview and edit. It keeps the “comment edited” e-mails I get to a minimum.


Comment from Pupster
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:49 am

Inane comment, spelled correctly.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:50 am

Oh! I hadn’t thought of that…yes, it will make links awkward. I didn’t turn on email notification; I’ve had very few problems in my comments, so I’m not braced for trouble.

Oh, well. We’ll see how we get on with it for a while.


Comment from Pupster
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:51 am

That is awesome.


Comment from Mike
Time: March 16, 2008, 11:21 am

“I perform on most manual dexterity tasks MUCH better after the first few.”

Me too. I think it’s basically because that’s when the shakes finally go away.

And dammit, I never figured out how to get the danged plugin working myself, and just gave up. And started drinking.


Comment from Mike
Time: March 16, 2008, 11:22 am

Yep, the plug works nicely here. Weaz, I stand in slack-jawed awe of your coding prowess. And am posting this to see if it’ll work twice at once. Um, so to speak.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 16, 2008, 11:22 am

Not getting email spam, Weaz, but a forum I run gets tons of comment spam (or comment spam attempts, since I have a very good screener, plus I wrote an IP-based bot trapper that automatically disallows trappees from accessing any page on the site). So far, two months and not a single spam-comment has been published.

Seems like the harvesters/spammers/scrapers are multiplying like rabbits. Don’t these people have lives? And what benefit is there, really, in pasting five dozen “live gilrz pr0n” links on obscure forums?

Oh, and great job. I just edited this post to add this line. All Hail Her Mighty Stoatiness, Mistress of UBGB, Protectress of AmEng, Defender of Et Cetera, and Survivor of The Horrifyingly Complex & Awe-Inspiring WordPress.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 11:31 am

Weaz – I’d say you’ve had one hell of a productive weekend!

Have some chili. My soup meat is simmering as we speak.

BTW: I am not getting volumes of spam – but I am only an egg.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 11:33 am

Yeah – that gray bar and quiet text is just perfect.


Comment from Randy Rager
Time: March 16, 2008, 12:00 pm

I suggest you get in the kitchen and make me a sammich.

I keed! I keed! Relax.

Edit: Hey, whaddaya know, editing works!


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 12:03 pm

I want to see what y’all are excited about,


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 12:04 pm

Ooooh. This is cool.


Comment from Hazel Stone
Time: March 16, 2008, 12:09 pm

This plugin is cool too, if you want to give your commenting hordes some buttons for HTML.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 12:55 pm

Where is Ronald’s tip jar! That kind of prompt service (on a Sat night!) needs to be rewarded.


Comment from steveegg
Time: March 16, 2008, 2:11 pm

BTW: I am not getting volumes of spam – but I am only an egg.

That’s my line 🙂


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 3:43 pm

steveegg – I thought I might be stepping on your intellectual property with my ‘egg’ comment – but it’s actually a reference to Heinlein’s ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’. I’ve used it before. And will again! 🙂

And I still want to know where Ronald’s tip jar is. Where the fiddly-fuck is Carmen Sandiego – not so much. I bet Weaz is out walking while the chili simmers. Or digests.

I wonder if Elijah is around, over in New Bedford?


Comment from steveegg
Time: March 16, 2008, 4:21 pm

It’s not my property.

I’ll second the question; where’s the Zombie tip jar?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 6:05 pm

Zombie tip jar? Reagan? Ya mean Weasels? Ain’t none – not that we minions haven’t suggested it from time to time.

steveegg. That’s an interesting nickname. Better’n fredfoetus or ericembryo. Way better’n bertblastocyst. And let’s not even talk about ivanafterbirth and mattmucusplug.

One of my favorites is “fish fear me”. That tickles me for unknown reasons.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 6:53 pm

There’s something about the tip jar concept that bothers me. I haven’t put my finger on it. Anyhow, I hit tip jars sometimes, but I don’t have one. My general plan is to build up lots of good will, then exploit you guys in some horrible but extremely profitable way I haven’t worked out yet. It’s sort of an Underpants Gnomes approach to mad blog money.

Me, I’ve got the floor sanding guys coming one Wednesday. That means I have basically two days to clean everything out of 80% of the house. I’m so far behind it’s Not Funny (mostly because I goofed off a lot this weekend).

I don’t think anyone really appreciates how difficult it is to get by in this crazy, crazy world when you’re as bone lazy as I am.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:01 pm

Duh. I meant Ronald – The Creator of the WP plug-in, not The Gipper. I found his tip jar. Anyone who services their software on Saturday night is worth encouraging!

Every time the subject of tip jars comes up, I think of Chris Muir over at Day By Day, and his famous 90-minute “Oh, shit!” fund drive. Heh.


Comment from Weasel, checking something
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:01 pm

Checking something. When I refresh a comment thread as admin, it pegs the CPU until all the edit links are displayed. I want to see if user mode does the same thing.

Edit: nope. It’s just an admin thing, so I won’t worry about it.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:12 pm

I would be interested in your thoughts on tip jars, Weaz, if you are willing to verbalize them. You’ve said that before, and I am sufficiently respectful of you to question my own casual attitude towards them.

IMHO, there is nothing inherently wrong with the concept, except that – as a formal social philosophy in the bigger sense – it is flawed, in that it will not work equitably when writ large or applied by dictate.

But you give fair value here. Your work is original, requires multiple talents and not-inconsiderable effort, and is of value to several hundred site clickers and linkers per day. Why should you not accept willing compensation from those who appreciate your efforts – and who have no other substantive way to indicate their appreciation?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:14 pm

Of course, I am completely full of shit, as you well know. Hee, hee!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:24 pm

I dunno, McGoo…it’s just a feeeeeling I have. I’ll make up for it in album sales.

Hey, the Ajax edit comment dude just wrote me a note. He said he’s hardly ever gotten donations in the past, and he’s gotten several today. Wanted to know if it was from here.

Well, I reckon that might be. <sniff> Y’all done me proud.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:39 pm

Yeah, wait, I can kind of put my finger on it. I frequently pay for shareware, if the asking price is modest and/or the product is really good. Hitting a tipjar to buy a widget (or show appreciation for one) makes sense.

But a blog is more of an ongoing relationship. Continuously asking for small sums of money feels like being that person who’s always bumming cigarettes and hoping to get away with it because you’re funny and people like to hang out with you.

I had a friend like that in college. We called her “Beebee the Dancing Bear” (behind her back). Her habit of cadging cigarettes (actually, big wet drags off your cigarette) was so pervasive, after a while we could just point to each other’s cigs and say, “Beebee?” if we wanted a hit.

I don’t want to be Beebee.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 7:51 pm

I understand that viewpoint, Weaz. It touches on one’s self-respect and desire to be respected by one’s friends and acquaintances. Nobody wants to be perceived as a mooch.

And I am sure as shit not trying to talk you into something.

FYI, my own take on it – as applied to me – is: blogging is a hobby to me. One of many. I reserve the right to quit – at any time. If I accepted money (heh – and if folks were stupid, er, I mean willing to give it!) I would feel obligated to continue to give fair measure.

A hobby should not evoke involuntary obligation. A hobby is something that one should be able to pick up and put down at will without repercussion. If one can’t, then it has become a duty, or a job.

Oh – and I admit I hit Ron’s tip jar. I hope others did too. I plan on getting some mileage out of this cool edit feature.

As a matter of fact – I just did. Twice. Pbbbth!


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:28 pm

Doesn’t a tip jar transform blogging into, like, a job?


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:30 pm

There’s an extraneous space between the opening parenthesis and “14”. Or not a space after “second(s)” and the closing parenthesis.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:34 pm

One other problem with a tip jar is that it can turn out to be a real disappointment. High traffic and repeat visitors do not necessarily coincide with revenue.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:34 pm

OH! In the timer! Took me a minute to work out what you were talking about, Musli (I don’t see the timer in admin mode. I can edit anybody’s messages any time I want. Bwahahahaha!).

Yeah, I thought about taking those parentheses out of there entirely. That’s not a switch in the regular options or the CSS, though, so I’d have to go into the PHP file. Not a problem — it’s open source — I just haven’t done it.

There’s no end of the mischief I can do once I get into the code.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:36 pm

Sorry for not being clearer. I assume way too often that people know what I’m talking about. It’s the cause of many blank stares at me.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:36 pm

I’m sure that’s true, jw. I’ve hit Ace’s tip jar when he asked, but I thought it interesting that he has to ask, despite 30K hits a day (or whatever it is). Also, he writes a thank-you note to everyone who donates…which means he isn’t getting 30K tips.

It’s just not a good model, somehow.

Running ads is a bit better, but do they have to be so intrusive and butt-ugly?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:39 pm

Musli – it would to me. I would feel obligated to continue. I’m selfish enough to stay away from that (self-imposed) trap. I like having the walking-away option. And the “beholdin’ to no one” freedom to do as I please.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 8:42 pm

jw is correct, I believe. Except for the recent Chris Muir Incident. Heh. I bet the pickin’s are slim for most tip jar operators.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:00 pm

Plus, if someone comes to depend on one’s tipjar, the vast hordes of readers become somewhat like shareholders: one constantly is thinking about pleasing them, keeping them coming, and pandering to them. Else the funds will stop coming in. Hobby-bloggers don’t care who stays or who goes, although they’d rather more people stay than go. Then how would blogging be different from newspapers, whose goal today is to keep reader loyalty than reporting the news (because the former keeps the dollars flowing)?

On the other hand, if someone fills a crucial niche (like, I believe, Ace and Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom), it justifies keeping them afloat. They do it as a living.

I know when I donate to Ace, I do feel as if I have a stake in his blog. I won’t ever say anything to Ace about it but I’m sure others may. Then, of course, I could simply be wrong.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:05 pm

Ah! There’s the rub, Musli. Newspapers don’t support themselves by providing you with news: they support themselves by selling advertisement space and an “audience” to people who want to sell you their products.

Notice on some blogs how much space is blog and how much is advertising.


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:11 pm

Yes, but do you love us in the cute kitten way or in the feral cat “gnaw your hand off if you touch me” way?


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:13 pm

example: I put a tip jar on PB three years ago, just to see what happened. To date it has generated exactly two tips, for a net of 40 bucks. Can’t complain, the two people who tipped were exceedingly generous, in my opinion.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:14 pm

But of course, Stoatland is vastly more entertaining (and requires far more talent to produce) than PB. So, tip Her Stoatiness, ya cheap bastiches!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:20 pm

I would (tip Weaz) if I could, jw!

Ew. That did not taste right. Tip Weaz?

Tasted like I offered a tip to a friend. Ew. How rude and presumptious of me.

OK. Weaz is right. I will just have to sing the praises of this site in a medium other than cash.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:28 pm

Yeah, tips are iffy. Our undying respect, adoration, and willingness to take a bullet for Her Stoatiness will, I suppose, have to suffice.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:35 pm

You are wise, jw.

I know! Since Weaz won’t moon her boss – I’ll do it! His/her recovery could take weeks!


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:08 pm

It’s gonna take me at least that long just to recover from the mental image. Thanks too much, Steam!


Comment from porknbean
Time: March 16, 2008, 10:32 pm

I don’t want to be Beebee.

When my son was a baby up until he was around 4-5, he had a blankie he carried around. He called it ‘bee-bee’.
That son is now going off to college next year. The cost is going to make us want to find that bee-bee, curl up into a fetal position, and cry.
Therefore, set up a tip jar called Beebee, and I will gladly relieve you of any guilt-like donatey feelings. Donate to the United Porcine-n-legume’s Kid’s College Fund. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Srsly.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 6:11 am

jw, I mooned my neighbor’s dog last year and she doesn’t barked anymore – just shivers a lot and dribbles wee.

Mooning – it’s not just for domestic disputes anymore.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 7:02 am

PnB — you make him take a real course, like engineering or dental hygeine! None of this “media studies” bullshit. If you’re going to get skinned alive to educate the lad, at least make sure he learns something that’ll keep you in your old age.

Ugh. I stayed up too late and drank too much. I am full of puffy and ouch.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 7:22 am

What? No “ethnic studies”? CU used to have a really special ethnic and Indian studies department!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 7:40 am

I think they make Ethnic Studies a really hard program if you aren’t…you know…ethnic.

As I approached the office by dawn’s early light, I could hear the gobble of a distressed turkey from afar. (We have a pair of wild turkeys that haunt the grounds. I think they’re both male. Let’s not speculate further).

Sure enough, one was trapped in the glassed-in foyer. Open on one end, but this is a turkey we’re talking about. Not known for their keen intellect. He panicked when he saw me and tried to book it into the lobby; fortunately he was too short to trigger the automatic door. Then he tried running sideways; he hit the wall and his legs kept pumping, smooshing his red wattle out against the glass.

Finally I got around behind him and shoo’d him toward freedom. Dang, that’s a big bird.

If that’s some kind of omen for this week, I’m waving the white flag RIGHT NOW.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 8:49 am

SHIT! It WAS an omen! I lost a post AND a graphic this morning, and I don’t even know how.

I hit ctrl-b on the graphic to adjust the brightness/contrast (it’s a custom keyboard configuration) and Photoshop closed itself. No warning, no saving. THEN I went to save-and-continue-editing a post, and WordPress said, “are you sure you want to edit this post?” — a message I have never seen before — and then IE told me the page had expired. Lost! All is lost!

Shit. I’m going for breakfast.


Comment from steveegg
Time: March 17, 2008, 9:10 am

I’ve never seen the “Are you sure you want to edit this post?” message before. I’ve seen the “delete” one though.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 9:39 am

There were Signs In The Heavens that this would come to pass.

From the Book of Excretions (Ch 2, Vs 22):

“And verily, there shall be a turkey obstructing passage to employment, and a Weasel will be briefly stymied in her endeavors before breaking fast in disgust. And A Toyota pickup shall fail state inspection under the noon sky for trivial reasons.”


Comment from jwpaine
Time: March 17, 2008, 11:00 am

Did that turkey mention anything about a sick horse?


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 11:01 am

Sorry, McGoo. Unless there’s something about the moon turning to bloom or somesuch, I can’t believe it. Throw in a rumor of war at least.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 11:28 am

bloom = blood. I can’t believe it took me almost half and hour to find that.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:09 pm

Comment editing is wasted on some people.


Comment from Lokki
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:10 pm

And on the first day, there were rumors of war pressaged by the appearance of an errant wild bird gobbling everything, but in the wrong place at the wrong time. Indeed the moon will wax towards its fullest (THE NEXT FULL MOON WILL APPEAR 2008 Mar 21 18:41 Fri) and posts of great brilliance will be lost in its(The Moon, the Moon, THE MOON’s) glow. Not even the black clouds of oily emissions from an inspection-failing Toyota pickup truck coughing its camshaft out will obscure the beauty of the pimpled planetary slave of our earth, as it (The Moon, the Moon, THE MOON) grows larger and larger – sort of a celestial southern moon-pie being eaten in reverse but without the RC Cola of the enlightened. Finally, not even the image of a moon-pie being eaten in reverse will quell a weasel’s appetite in these dark (but only metaphorically so) times.

Is that more like the Cassandrical prediction that you were looking for, Muslihoon?


Comment from Lokki
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:17 pm

Lokki thinks:

Thank Goodness we have an edit function now – that post was way too confusing before I edited it!


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:18 pm

Much better. Very lunacitical.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:19 pm

Comment editing is wasted on some people.

Woohoo! First time the word “wasted” could be used with regard to me!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:33 pm

Horses? You betcha!

They’re in the Book of Expletives (Ch 6, Vs 11):

“And I looked, and beheld a mangy trotter: and the name burnt unto his hiney was ‘jwp ranch’, and a dribble of wee followed behind him. And the Rancher was peeved, and didst show His disgust in divers ways: And power was given unto His bullwhip of Discipline as He cracked at His Hands of Ranchness to ‘git thine lead out!’ and corner the four-legged oater, ‘Before it dribblest all over the damned county!’ And there was much to’ing and fro’ing as they didst His bidding – lest unemployment befallest them and their fortunes dwindle.”


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:39 pm

And there was much to’ing and fro’ing

GLAI!


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:52 pm

I wish I could lay claim to it, Musli. But I read it in one of the Stainless Steel Rat or Deathworld novels decades ago – I can’t remember which one.

Harry Harrison does come up with some interesting phrases, and his sense of humor is my own.

And Boy! is this a long thread.


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:55 pm

Is this the longest thread on Her Highness’s place?


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:57 pm

This is the 200th comment! Woot.

We’d have to ask m’lady. I remember ones well over a hundred, but 200? ‘Course a bunch were test comments and edit comments.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:03 pm

Easily the longest ever. w00t!

After the Curse ate my post this morning, I’m having a hard time pulling a new one together. I keep getting sidetracked.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:07 pm

Sidetracked? Work is rude that way.

Your minions will wait patiently.

I wonder what will happen if I comment, and then edit it all away. Will it post a blank comment?


Comment from Muslihoon
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:15 pm

Let us try.

Edit: No. It says “Saving Comment Failed” if everything is deleted. Tricksy.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:18 pm

Oh goodness me no, McGoo. Not sidetracked by work.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:21 pm

That’s … sneaky, Musli.

Let us consider other ways to test this new and entertaining edit feature. Hmmm…

Ah! Weaz is being sidetracked by cascading rivulets of creative alternatives!

Ditto!


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:25 pm

Well, you know you can use it to post multiple links, if desired. I’ve decided to consider that a feature rather than a bug, since I think all the spam we get is bot-controlled.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:34 pm

I’d caught that implication yesterday when you mentioned it, but plumb (plum?) forgot about it. Lokki will be pleased.

Plum? I wonder what the origin of that expression is? Wiki…

Plumb:

clean: completely; used as intensifiers; “clean forgot the appointment”; “I’m plumb (or plum) tuckered out”

Harumph. No etiology?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:41 pm

There is no important life question that has not already been addressed on sweasel.com.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:45 pm

Any bloody excuse to link to stoat pr0n!

Shameless!


Comment from Lokki
Time: March 17, 2008, 1:55 pm

I wonder what will happen if I comment, and then edit it all away. Will it post a blank comment?

McGoo – there are some experiments in philosophical matters that are better left undone. Your question reminds me of the headache (OK, it was probaby really from a hangover) that I got in my Philosophy Class – about the question of seeing the little man at the top of the stairs who wasn’t there.

If he wasn’t there, how could you see him? If you could see him, how could he not have been there? It made my brain hurt, I tell you. So, please don’t start all that up again.

I had much less trouble running over the nuns to avoid hitting the grade school, when the hypothetical brakes failed on our theoretical bus at the top of the hill that terrible day.

I don’t do very well with THIS kind of puzzle either.

http://www.smallcampus.net/upload/html/maths_games/2001-05-03/riverIQGame.swf

Note – For those who have no desire to study Japanese in order to solve the puzzle

A father and his two sons, a mother and her two daughters, a thief and a policeman are on one side of a river. There is a boat by the river bank, but it can only take two people at a time. Only the father, the mother and the policeman know how to operate the boat. The father can not be with any of the girls without their mother around. The mother can not be with any of the boys without their father around. The thief can not be with anyone else without the policeman around. How can you get everyone across to the other side of the river?

Start the game by clicking on the big round blue button. Click on a person to get him or her on or off the boat. Click on the levers to get the boat to move.

.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: March 17, 2008, 2:01 pm

How about they all DROWN, Lokki? How would that be?


Comment from Cassandra
Time: March 17, 2008, 2:19 pm

See McGoo?

See what happens when you raise these philosophical type of questions?

Oh, I warned you! But no one ever seems to listen….

Sigh

Oh, and somehow, given your mood, I thought you’d like the part where the Dad smacks the little girl in the head, weasel….

If you don’t want to try to cross the river, you can just sit around smacking the kids all day. It’s a multi-dimensional game.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 2:55 pm

I should have known that almost any question I can raise has been addressed here.

I have always loved that poem:

Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today;
Oh, how I wish he’d go away.

(~William Hughes Mearns)

So if a chicken and a half can lay an egg and a half in a day and a half – how many eggs can a chicken lay in a day? Show your work for extra credit.

And finally:

I shot an arrow into the air.
It fell to earth – I knew not where.
Until next day, with rage profound,
The man it fell on came around.
And in less time than it takes to tell,
He *showed* me where that missile fell!
So now I do not greatly care,
To shoot more arrows into the air.


Comment from Enas Yorl
Time: March 17, 2008, 3:01 pm

Wow. You guys sure have been busy.

For Lokki:

There was a man upon the stair,
A little man who was not there.
He wasn’t there again today.
Gee I wish he’d go away.

Bah. Figures McGoo would get beat me to it. My version was from a Fredrick Brown short story.


Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: March 17, 2008, 3:11 pm

I think there are a bunch of versions, Enas. And – actually – I got to it before you were beat. After that it was too late, so you really couldn’t win nohow.


Pingback from Look at the pic! « Muslihoon
Time: March 28, 2008, 11:10 pm

[…] March 28, 2008 at 9:10 pm (Diabetes) If you haven’t noticed, I have neat little pic of High Lord Diabetes Wilford Brimley ala dhikrihi sujud in the sidebar. It was done by none other than Her Highness Princess Stoat E. Weasel of Allsexes (found in the comment thread for “Because Weasel hearts you very much”). […]


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 20, 2014, 10:36 pm

Meh. This thread has become a spam magnet. Shutting down comments on it.

DIE SPAMMERS!