CatHouse Chat

Er... Sorry for the spam..

But, apparently, the SixApart/FaceBook BlogIt application is NOT going to work for me...

Ew, how many times did it post a duplicate? Five? Nope. Plus, it doesn't appear to update FBook AND TPad simultaneously. Ah, well, it was only a quick little experiment, and i've removed the applications.

Again, sorry for the spam in your RSS! ;-)

Trying to install something new

I was just reading over at Typepad Hacks about installing Emoodicons... One thing about me - I looooove the smileys! (and I wish TPad Hacks would start writing again - it's frustrating to find something that might be helpful to me, only to see that they haven't updated in over 6 months!)

So... Let's see if this works.

k-happy

Hurrah! Success!

For the past month or so, ever since it was announced that Google Video was going to stop accepting new uploads, I've been searching for a site that would host the video I take of my pastor's sermons. GodTube (now tangle.com for reasons which still mystify me - what a moronic choice!) and YouTube would not accept them; although they were under the storage limit, they were well over the time limit. I really did NOT want to split the videos into three or four parts, but...

*frustrated HUFF!*

LiveLeak and a few others all seemed much too focused on politics for Christian sermons to meld happily into the mix, and I was seriously considering asking my computer-guru Husband to free up some space on the server for the outside world to access. It wasn't the best solution, because we're on rural DSL (hey, I'm grateful for the broadband access out here, don't get me wrong!) and the bandwidth, from what I understand, would make the video capture very slow. Plus, you know, not too excited about opening up OUR network to all the barbaric yahoos out there... ;-)

And then I found Vimeo...

What I like about Vimeo is that their free accounts have a 500meg weekly upload limit - storage space only; they don't care about the length. Plus, one HiDef file per week (within the 500meg limit). If I want to upgrade to a paid account at $60/year, the weekly limit soars to FIVE GIG, plus UNLIMITED HD videos (and no ads...). Not bad; I might consider it in the future.

So, THANK YOU, Vimeo! I'm looking forward to a long and happy association.

(and in my next post, I present with delight my Pastor, Hank, talking about Marriage Secrets - How to Make It)

Bloggers Community Photo Challenge: FOOD!

Thai Duck Curry, from Lemongrass in Annapolis, MD... Although the restaurant has changed a LOT since I was there last!

I saw this post by my dear blog brother, Scott, and had to participate in this Bloggers Community Photo Challenge, although it's not nearly as technically perfect as I'd like ;-)

A new word...

While looking up some synonyms for "rant" and "screed" over at the Free Dictionary (an excellent site; well worth bookmarking, and far better than Dictionary.com) this morning, I came upon this lovely word:

FANFARONADE -

• Bragging or blustering manner or behavior
• swaggering boastfulness; vainglorious speech or behavior

Beautiful! It rather fits (with some minor alterations) two people who have contacted me in the past 12 hours and tried to tell me how to run my blog.

Hm. [poking around the Free Dictionary] Actually, "sanctimonious" would work for them both, too, as would "peremptory" and "autocratic."

Remember, folks, CatHouse Chat is not a democracy or a republic; it is a kingdom. MY little kingdom. I'm generally a rather benevolent despot, but I am a despot nonetheless, and your "free speech rights" (the Fairness Doctrine's possible return notwithstanding) DO NOT APPLY HERE. Amuse me, graciously educate me, politely argue with me - that's all lovely.

Piss me off, and I kick you out of the house.

Them's the rules.

Acorn wars!

UPDATE: Well, darn again! Why didn't this post?! Or, rather, why isn't the video playing when the link is clicked... [pondering] Hm. Let me try to repost it...

Family Cookout

Cousin, daughter, cousin - enjoying the beautiful day and good food. The Darling Munchkin snarfed down the fruit salad quite enthusiastically.

UPDATE: Well, dang... The picture didn't come thru. I'm beginning to think that I am going to have to "save" a picture and then post it [pout].

Oh, welcome back, Live Writer!

… I hope!

I’d uninstalled Windows Live Writer just before FireFox came out with 3.0, and returned to using the TPad editing desktop. It’s been OK, but I’ve had a few irritating quirks (not program issues, just little things that weren’t done the way *I* wanted), and I hope that this new version of WLR will fix them.

But, WLR was also having some issues when I uninstalled it; my categories disappeared, and there was one other major thing that happened (can’t remember what it was now). That may have had something to do with some of the programming upgrades that TypePad instituted, so I’m hoping that things have settled down and WLR and TPad are all buddy-buddy again.

So, I’m going to get the plugins for WLR to tweak things and I’m off and running! [bouncing happily] Oh, I hope it works (I can see all my categories already, so that’s a good sign), because I did enjoy using Live Writer as a blogging editor!

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer,Live Writer,blogging editor

Bunny Colvin earns third-ever lifetime ban on CatHouse Chat

First it was meatbrain (or, "the pustule" as I prefer to call it), then it was hoobie (for general idiocy and obnoxious rudeness), and now Bunny gets to join this little group of unwelcome cretins.

He's trolled for a long time over at And Rightly So, owned by my beloved friend Raven, and after I rebuked him rather sharply over there, he decided to come over here and drop a spite-filled little piece of dung. Instead of actually addressing my point of Obamaramadingdong's empty promises, all little Bunnicula has to offer is this:

"Pandering to terrorists"? Please- you're a joke. And your quilts are hideous.

PEACE

Yeah. Certainly a very mature, cogent, and intelligent refutation of my point, Bunbun. 

I can't believe how these morons think they might persuade anyone with half a brain over to their side! I'm not against liberals - not at all! - in fact, my best friends have political views far to the left of mine (... OK, I admit, that's not terribly hard... But NEVERTHELESS! LOL) and we get along swimmingly. It is a blessing to have them, however, because when we discuss politics, they speak thoughtfully and rationally. They give logical points and make careful rebuttals to my comments. They also know when we're going to have to agree to disagree, and that we can still be good friends.

That's the way to persuade people to your point of view, not to use childish little snarks which have noting to do with the discussion. Bunny's just jealous because he (she?) will never join the ranks of the many people to whom I have given quilts, and who love and appreciate them. 

So, Bunny, you're a minority of one and have proven yourself to be a spiteful and malicious little spoiled brat. I certainly don't need or want your kind here on CatHouse Chat. However, since that's the best you can do, I've decided to exercise my right as owner of this blog and offer you an invitation to the world - in other words, don't let the door further bruise your petty little ass on your way out, Bunny.

Buh-bye.

No, I'm NOT surprised!

The Puppy Blender linked a Washington Times article comparing the amount of profanity on liberal vs. conservative blogs, which makes this conclusion:

The top 10 liberal sites (Daily Kos, Huffington Post, Democratic Underground, Talking Points Memo, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Atrios, Greenwald, MyDD and Firedoglake) have a profanity quotient of 14.6.

The top 10 conservative sites (Free Republic, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs, Townhall, NewsBusters, Lucianne.com, Wizbang, Ace of Spades, Red State and Volokh Conspiracy) have a quotient of 1.17.

(CORRECTED PARAGRAPH:) That's quite a disparity. Liberals are more than 12 times likely to use profanity than conservatives on the Web. [ed. note - I think I saw it calculated at 14 times when I first read the article. I also added the missing conservative links, and deleted the link to Firedoglake - get your OWN links!]

Matthew Sheffield, who wrote the article, ended with this deduction:

Why such a disparity between the right and left online?

Some on the right may take this as a sign of their superior intelligence. Others may theorize that it's simply because liberals are angry at President Bush.

More than likely, it is a reflection of how things are offline. Conservatives, especially those who are more religious, are less likely to use profanity in their daily conversation.

Mmmmmm, yeah, I can see that as a real possibility... But, in MY case, I know my Mom and her friends read my blog - and she's called me on the carpet at least once when I used profanity, so it's not a real good option for me ;-) (Hey, you've never been verbally smacked by my Mom!) Also, I prefer not to use profanity in casual - or even focused - conversation, because I believe it lessens the impact of the argument.

Now, I have used profanity - but my friends know that when I resort to four-letter-words I am beyond upset and tending towards enraged. And, they know that it's time to step away from the Kat and start looking for places to hide, LOL!

... But I do try to keep that down to a small murmur here on CatHouse Chat. *snicker*

LOL, oh, I'd love this as a theme for the CatHouse!

I was whining to some of my Cotillion sisters that I wish that a) TypePad had more themes available, or b) that I had solid design/coding skills, because I'd love a theme which reflects my faith, my love of country... and cats.

Naturally, the Conservative Belle found a wonderful picture to start with:

ScribeFire trials... Again...

I notice that my blog-brother, Scott, is experimenting with ScribeFire. I've tried it off and on several times over the past couple of years (I'm writing this post with it, as a matter of fact), and have always had some sort of trouble with it.

For instance, uploading pictures has always been a pain - it keeps asking for some FTP or HTTPS protocol, and I've never been able to figure it out for TypePad. *sigh*

Currently, it isn't finding the category settings, which is one of the reasons I finally stopped using Windows LiveWriter (which I really liked, BTW). I don't know if this particular issue is a result of some of the programming changes TPad is making, but it means that I need to open TPad's editor and add the categories to the post - which is kind of a waste of time.

So, although I like the idea of ScribeFire, so far I haven't found a way to make it work "invisibly" for me... [pout]

BlogNet News unfairly attacked

You know, anyone who has a basic understanding of RSS feeds really wouldn't get into a snit over this, but apparently Victoria Marinelli, a blogger in the St. Louis area, hasn't done her homework. Dave Mastio, the creator of BlogNet News, had added her blog to BNN, and poor Vicky got her knickers all in a twist. FYI, it's a dot-com under her name - I'm not going to link it - look at the entry for 26Mar08.

Vicky is claiming that Dave's inclusion of her RSS feed is NOT "fair use," but "theft," and proceeded to immediately go on the attack - her first e-mail to him opens with "Dear Thief."

Way to display your intelligence and maturity, Vik. Not.

I've dealt with Dave in the past few years, and he's always willing to help out and open to suggestions. I've met him in person, and he's amusing, gracious, and really a nice guy. If you were that irritated at being included, a simple "I would prefer not to have my blog on your aggregator; please remove it" would have been more than sufficient, but nnnooooo! Vicky had to get up on her high horse and make a major "Drah-mah, dahling!" out of it.

Dave, gracious man that he is, keeps his cool and responds far more civilly than she deserves.

Vik, baby, you know, to be perfectly fair, you really need to track down everyone who has you on their feed readers and see if you're going to allow them to subscribe to your feed. My blog brother, Scott, puts it bluntly:

But lets try to address this mommy blogger’s claims.

• republishes my sites content without permission and without any links back to my own website - I am familiar with the internal workings of BNN.  The guts of the machine.  I know how it works.  Not on a “coding” level but on the level that I work with it and the fact that it produces the content you see.  Click on the title of any article on BNN and you will be taken to the producing site.  It has been that way since I have been a contributor and since I have been an Editor.  Click on the name of your blog and you go to your very own aggregate within BNN of all your most recent posts.
• As far as I know, Dave was not a speech writer for George W. Bush.  He was a speech writer for the administration but not the President.  Something to do with a Trade Secretary or someone.  I am not even sure.  What difference does THAT make?
• Dave is an editorialist/editor for the Virginian-Pilot.
• BNN does not publish an entire article unless the article is really short, like “you suck” or something like that.  I am not sure of the character count but I imagine around 200 characters or so of your content is published.
• I am not a lawyer, I am not a specialist when it comes to dealing with intellectual property.  But I am relatively familiar with the legal system and some of its thought processes.  If you put a “Feed” button on your site, if you publish a syndicated feed of any type that does not require a registration or paid subscription, you are placing that content in the public domain for all to use.  Your permission is implied.

D'uh!

Dave, as I said, is a good guy. Personally, I think Vicky-baby is simply making a tempest in a teapot in an attempt to increase her traffic. Well, I daresay she'll get a brief bump, but this is, at best a three-day-wonder. BlogNet News is a good site, providing a very worthwhile and useful service, and won't be much affected by Vicky's little temper tantrum.

Vik, a final word of advice: you know they've got medication for that little PMS problem you've got going, right? Don't know if they've got any good drugs to improve the thought processes, though...

Well. Mom will be pleased...

But I'm thinking that this widget doesn't really scan the whole site... I would've expected about a 2% (if the average is about 9% as they claim) for me...

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

I mean, I know I let loose with a "damn" or a "hell" occasionally... ;-)

The Tiara Media takes Lynchburg by storm!

The lovely Beth, of Yeah, Right, Whatever, came into Lynchburg today and I had the opportunity to drive on up hang out and have dinner with her.

She graciously brought me my own tiara (all the ladies of the Cotillion simply must have their own tiaras!), since all the fabric fondling of the past couple of weeks have addled my brains so much that I'd forgotten to acquire one! She presented it to me the moment I walked in the hotel room, and we wore them all night - and got FOUR inquiries as to what it was all about. The waitress at the restaurant got the concept immediately, but the other three comments were all from guys, who were a little bemused *snicker*

We chatted about kids, politics, God - didn't get to taxes, but we were, after all, at dinner ;-) It was a wonderful evening, and I may have the opportunity to get back up to Lynchburg this week and visit with her again. She is a lovely, articulate lady, who is even more gracious and lovely in person than she is online.

It was a great evening, and I was wonderfully blessed to be able to FINALLY meet one of my Cotillion sisters!

(crossposted to the Cotillion)

Life's kind of a pain when the DSL goes out...

The customer service folks - the telephone people and the maintenance people - were great over the past several days. Apparently, a dump truck ran over/bumped/crashed into (whatever) some switchbox or something, and the Fairpoint Communications people worked 'round the clock to get things back up and running.

Now, so far I like their people, but I'm not sure yet about the company itself. Fairpoint bought out out local teeny-bopper providers, PMT Net, about a year ago, I think. Now, PMT Net wasn't any great force of nature; they were a small company, and out upload/download speeds weren't usually what was promised. The Beloved Husband and I are hoping that Fairpoint will be able to really get the service up to proper standards - AND lower the price! We're paying an ungodly amount for broad band each month, but I suppose that's part of the trade off to living out in the boonies. *sigh*

Of course, so long as Fairpoint is the only game in town, I doubt we'll be seeing better prices any time soon...

But, on the upside, I got a LOT of quilting done! I added the binding to David's quilt:

After I managed to pry the Darling Munchkin off this black 'n' red Christmas top, I loaded it onto my machine and quilted it:

And then I made a quilt for my Daddy's 90th birthday in May. I used flannels from a Judie Rothermel kit I'd bought five or six years ago, and - since there was plenty of fabric - I modified it and made it bigger. So, Daddy's going to get a lap quilt (about 56" x 64" or so) to help keep him nice and cozy warm:

For Daddy's quilt (and yeah, I still call him "Daddy" even though I'm 44 - because he *IS* my Daddy, and he's the BEST Daddy I could possibly have had!), I just did a quick and utilitarian meander, since anything more elaborate would have gotten lost in the fabrics. I've already got the binding on the front, so all I need to do is sew it to the back, just like on David's quilt. However, all this sewing and quilting has KILLED my arms (the left one in particular - it's all buzzy-numb [pout]), so I'll need to take it a little at a time.

Hm... Suddenly I'm wondering if I should have posted pics of this, 'cause MOM reads my blog, and she's been agitating for a new bed quilt for a little bit, LOL. Mom, I promise - you'll get your own lap quilt for your birthday, all right? ;-) So, no poaching Daddy's!

*giggle*

Testing a new plugin

Some of my favorite verses in the Bible are:

• Romans 8:28 (actually, all of Romans 8)
• Isaiah 41:13
• Ephesians 2:8-10
• Psalm 19:1

I hope the new "plug-in" will automatically add the links for these verses to Biblegateway; it would save me a LOT of time and effort! LOL

Will it work...?

UPDATE: Hm, no, apparently not... Drat!

Welcome 'Blossom'!

The CatHouse is pleased and proud to announce the arrival of the newest toy... My Dell Inspiron 1525! More later after I get her temporarily set up.

UPDATE: Working now to get connected to all our home network, downloading Firefox (booo Internet Explorer!) and my add-ons, and debating whether I want to use UBUNTU as a dual-boot, or only have Windows Vista run in VMWare for the few programs which need it....

I will need to take a nicer pic of Blossom's cover; it's very pretty! And, she also accepts my Sony MemoryStick Pro from my camera without another adapter, so *I* am a very happy camper!

Her keyboard feels nice and sharp, and kinda science-fictiony... The touchpad is integrated into her case, so there is no sharp little ledge for dirt to get caught in... I *EVEN* have a built-in webcam... Hmm... Maybe I can post a pic from it, but I'm not sure y'all really want to see my face at the moment, LOL ;-)

TypePad Team Beta!

I am honored to have been selected (along with who knows how many others) to participate in the TypePad Beta team. I have been hosted on TypePad since I began blogging in September, 2004, and have loved the service from the start.

I am proud to have a voice in making - KEEPING! - TypePad as the best, most versatile, and service-oriented blogging platform!

So, you will probably see the occasional post about the new features TypePad puts into beta. And I promise, although I love TypePad, I will do my best to evaluate the new features fairly. But, you will need to remember that I'll be coming at it from the perspective of someone who has NO coding skills; therefore, I'm sure I'll be rating things according to a) how easy they are for me to use, and b) how relevant they are to how I blog. In other words, the more technical advances will probably get a pass from me ;-)

But thanks to TypePad for opening up this beta team to me; I hope that my input will improve TypePad and make it the most nimble and friendly blogging platform available!

BLEG: My laptop just turned into a brick *sob*

You know all the problems I've been having with my WinXP OS Sony Vaio VGN-FS550? Well, the poor baby finally succumbed [pout]. She is now a brick. The Beloved Husband thinks it's quite possibly the mother board, which has already been replaced (back in Nov. 07 - quick service from Sony, but it cost enough that I ought to have gotten a NEW laptop then).

I am now on my ancient (6 years old?) Vaio PCG-V505DXP, which is running Ubuntu (and doing pretty well, actually). I've got to order a new battery, but that's not critical, since I blog while connected to the electrical supply 95% of the time. So, although I don't have *MY* machine, I can still enjoy the benefits of the 'Net. I'm keeping my eye on Dell laptops,  but I also think that I DON'T want a  Windows OS, so D is going to have to install a Linux OS anyway. Which means that Acer might be the way to go, 'cause I think they'll sell the stripped machines (hardware only) and the Beloved Husband will be able to do a clean install of Ubuntu.

But, that also means that I need a Linux/Ubuntu m4a to mp3 converter and an iTunes emulator. I also need a really good video capture/editor,  I need to figure out how to install the mp3 converter plug in on Audacity, AND the Google Video Uploader. If you have suggestions as to how I can do this or what programs I need to download, let me know in the comments (in a detailed fashion - I'm still getting used to Ubuntu).

I'm also wondering if it's worth it to do a "Buy the Kat a 'top" fundraiser... On the off chance I have readers who would like to help, I have a "KatKash" tip jar over on the right under my picture. If you would like to help out, I would be very grateful - if you don't have the spare change, just leave a note of condolence in the comments ;-)

An anyway, your prayers would be most helpful!

[NOTE: This post will stay on top for a while; scroll down for new posts. Thank you!]

Computer woes...

Well, this is the second - or is it third? - day that my Sony Vaio laptop, the "new" one (it's about 3 years old), is hard down. And when I say "hard down," I mean it! The Beloved Husband is wrestling with bringing it to a point where he can strip off the Microsoft Operating System (not Vista, the one before [ed. - Oh, yeah, "XP Home" blech]) and install UBUNTU on it.

Basically, I have had it with Microsoft!

Of course, MSoft does have some redeeming programs - I like Live Writer for blogging, and I like their instant messaging system... But the rest? Pfft! At this point, I wouldn't care if the company imploded in the next 5 minutes!

He's going to also install a VMware program so I can run Windows in a small partition - for programs like Live Writer and iTunes for which I haven't found satisfactory equivalents (yet) - but this it it for me: no more Windows torture!

Unfortunately, this means that I'm going to be without a significant portion of data at my fingertips: mainly my music library. The Beloved Husband backed up my hard drive last night, but for some odd reason, we're not seeing all my tunes. *sigh* Well, he's a computer genius - and has a fair portion of sheer cussed determination - so we'll get it figured out (er, or he will!). I just hope it's in time for me to record a full show for Sacred Hideaway on Radio CIA next week.

At any rate, my old Vaio has been given new life. It's a PCG-V505DP (and do you believe the prices at those two links? They must be cached pages...), and about 5 years old. It passed from me to the Darling Munchkin, and was rattling around the house, unused, when the Munchkin got her own Dell for her birthday last spring. The Husband stripped off the MSoft OS, and installed UBUNTU, and it's like a new machine! Of course, the battery is pretty far gone (if I get 20 minutes not plugged in, I'm lucky), and the AC connection had been re-re-re-engineered so many times that it looks like something out of Buckaroo Banzai, but it works!

So, if you've got any old computers laying around, you might want to consider giving them a new shot with the Linux/UBUNTU Operating System... Less issues with security problems, lighter, faster, more efficient... and it's all open source, which means it's pretty much FREE! Yes, there is a learning curve as you adjust to the slightly different look and logic to the system, but it's not so drastically different that it's a nightmare - it's more the "OOoooo, look! Shiny... NEW!" sort of reaction ;-) .

Love UBUNTU.... UBUNTU good... UBUNTU rocks the world...

Yes, I do believe I'm a convert, LOL!

OK, let's try again...

Drivel has no setting to "post and publish" but you can use CTRL+return/enter, apparently... It's STILL really basic - I miss all the different stuff WinLiveWriter has... [pout]

Nope, still only posted a draft, so I had to go on TPad and publish it, which kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it? **grf**

Test

The Beloved Husband has downloaded and installed UBUNTU on one of our old laptops, and we've been poking around with Linux-compatible blogging tools. This one is called Drivel, and it's been rather a mess to figure out the set up...

It's also very, very, VERY minimalist - I really like Windows Live Writer, which even Wine (don't ask - computer geek stuff) doesn't seem to want to run on this OS. I'm sure we can MAKE it do so, it's just going to take more tweaking than I feel like dealing with at the moment.

***BUT*** if I can get that set up, and still like UBUNTU after using it a while, I'm going to have my Beloved switch my big Vaio Laptop (I'm using the old, smaller one at the moment) over to UBUNTU, and ditch the Windows OS...

(OK, and oddly enough, Drivel posted this to TPad as a draft... Gotta check the preference settings...

Intermittent comment moderation now in effect

Unfortunately, I've had another troll return to CHC, and I don't feel like allowing its comments to pile up and make a stink. It has been using many IP addy's, and I can't ban it that way, so I have to resort to moderating comments. This has been a problem throughout the whole blogosphere, and I am tired of deleting or unpublishing moronic comments from the occasional idiot (yeah, hoobie and meatbrain come to mind - although meaty has been banned for quite a while).

To my regular readers, I apologize. However, I will get your comments up and published as soon as I can after you submit them.

For those of you who might be tempted to scream "CENSORSHIP!!!!" I will remind you that this blog is MY PROPERTY, not yours. My house, my rules: I do not permit guests who spit on my beliefs and who leave piles of dung on the carpet in my real home - why should I suffer them here?

Courteous, thoughtful and respectful comments, whether they agree with me or not, will always be published. But if you have nothing to say and say it rudely, then you have no forum here.

Don't forget, my comment policy is right here, and is quite clear as to what I expect from my guests. Those rules are non-negotiable.

Bye, hoobie!

GMail's storage limits just jumped?

I've been so used to seeing GMail incrementing the available storage limits by kilobytes (yeah I know I got that wrong - deal with it), and was happy the other day to see that they'd jumped to 3 gigs per account.

And this morning - FAR faster than I'd ever seen it - I'm showing just over FOUR gigabytes?!

Cool!

So, how come I haven't seen them - or anyone else - promoting the additional storage?

UPDATE: Ah, I see two articles here and here, on a Google news search for "GMail."

UPDATE-UPDATE: Oh, WOW!!! By January of 2008, it's supposed to be SIX gig! W00t!

Actually, this may not be such a great thing - I participate in groups that enjoy sassing each other back and forth *snicker* and now I'm going to have no incentive to clean out the junk! LOLOLOL

Technorati Tags: GMail, Google mail, Google, storage

No, I do NOT approve!

Especially since I've been getting help from the "other side," which has been much appreciated.

To recap:

• Someone purchased the "old dominion blog alliance" -dot- com domain last week on the 16th, and set it up to redirect to a vile site which promotes pedophilia. Ben Tribbet (or is it "Tribbit"? I forget...), of Not Larry Sabato (not linking to him, because you already know I don't think much of his character), tipped Whackette to this, and she posted it over at the Daily Whackjob. Ben then posted his little snippet, with the obligatory-but-flip "I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!!" with a hat tip back to Whackette.
• The identity of the domain owner is not on the public record - in other words, we don't know who did this. Yet.
• I e-mailed Whackjob yesterday morning when the ODBA found out about this. I asked him if he knew who was responsible to please tell them to lay off: I would be less upset if the redirect were to an ADULT pr0n site which didn't attempt to take advantage of children. He very kindly e-mailed me back right away with the information in the first point, above, and offered several suggestions as to how I could find out who was responsible for this vile "prank." He was extremely helpful and supportive, and I'm not surprised at his irritation at some of the attacks on the crew at DWJ.
• The ODBA has sent in a letter to GoDaddy/Domains By Proxy, and we are waiting for their reply.

Those are the FACTS as we know them, and Riley and Ward probably have the most neutral write-ups (for which I thank them). Greg at Black Velvet Bruce Li also posted; he had some incorrect information, but immediately updated when I corrected him. Leslie Carbone only posted a gracious biblical reminder... And I think I will add another, to pass on to Kilo:

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:29-32, NKJV)

I understand his disgust and anger with this situation - I share it! - but I think he's being hasty and unnecessarily combative. I've told him that. I also think he - and others - are going to call me an apologist for "the lying low-down liberals." OK, that's fine: however, just because I try not to use the same tactics, and prefer to remain cordial with people on the "other side," does not make me a patsy.

Whackjob has posted that he thinks the ODBA has a grudge against Ben, and I would concede the point to a certain extent. I would hope, however, that my Virginian blog-siblings would not let that drive them to descend to half-truths and innuendo. Whackette posted this morning, stating categorically that she had nothing to do with setting up the domain. While I don't think she was as wise as she could have been in her original post, I have no reason to believe that her involvement - or that of her husband - goes any further. Perhaps, as Whackjob amended his post to reflect, we will all be far more wary of any "tips" Ben hands out in the future.

I freely confess that I *DO* want to find out that one certain person is behind this, but I'm not going to sacrifice the truth to my petty desire for "revenge." Frankly, it's not worth the huge helping of crow I'd have to eat if I'm wrong. Therefore, I'm going to wait until we get solid information from GoDaddy, to start making accusations and demanding retractions and apologies.

On a side note, I purchased the olddominionblogalliance.net and olddominionblogalliance.org domains yesterday, and pointed them to the ODBA Tumblr aggregator (I would be willing to take over the -dot- com which is currently the center of the issue and point it to Tumblr as well). It was not difficult to do, and as I stated at BVBL, "lacks the technical skills necessary” is a pretty weak defense.

So, we will see what we will see - and remember: the Truth always prevails, even when it takes some time, and even when we don't see it.

Optimism for the Virginia blogosphere

Chris Saxman's son, William, has just started a new blog:

I think all the negative and bad news really makes people unhappy.

So, I will focus on all the good things that are going on because I believe that many good things are going on out there but we never get to see them because that is not what makes headlines.

Please go on over to welcome him and offer encouragement, because - God knows! - we need a lot of positive news these days!

Technorati Tags: new blog, optimism, good news

Meet the Daily Whackjob staff... (UPDATED)

Well, some of them, anyway...

Seated are (L to R) (no political affiliation intended *snicker*): Whackette (a terribly unflattering picture - she's much more elegant and lovely), Republitarian, Mad Hatter (?), and phreindly jaime (also unflattering. I need an new camera... [pout]).

Standing are (Right to Left): Jay of Virginia Virtucon, and Whackjob smooching on (he likes smoochies!)... Bunky? St. Lo? I'm sorry, I didn't converse with the "young'uns" enough to properly tell them apart... Too bloody busy being a social butterfly... [rolls eyes at self]

But I'm sure the DWJ staff will come on over and correct me... *snicker*

UPDATE: Oh my gosh, look what I found!

Whackette looks much better, but the picture still doesn't do her justice. Jaime has snuggled up to Mad Hatter (lucky guy), and Whackjob is "behaving." Bunky doesn't look too happy, though...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Oh, I'm being evil, posting the other picture before this one... C'mon, guys - have at me in the comments! (Yeah, comment whore, here. Deal with it!)

Happy Fourth from the search engines

Google (beautiful job, guys):

Ask (also gorgeous):

Not seeing anything particular from DogPile or Yahoo, but that may change.

Rated PG

Sounds about right...

I'm no angel, certainly, but I'm definitely not "G" rated!

(And I guess I'm getting back into the swing of things - I'm almost back from vacation, and my post rate is going back up!)

Lt. Gov. Bolling to speak at Blogs United Dinner

Oh, how wonderful!

We get to enjoy his presence again! I very much appreciated - both last year in Martinsville, and earlier this year in Richmond - the grace and eloquence of Virginia's Lieutenant Governor, Bill Bolling.

I'm looking forward to seeing him again, and perhaps if I'm lucky, I'll be able to have another fluff interview with him. After all, I do need to ask him if he's enjoying his quilt!

This is the Jamestown 2007 Block of the Month Quilt, based on a design by Judy Martin, with fabrics selected by Quilted Expressions in Lynchburg.

So, Virginia bloggers, have you signed up yet?

Technorati Tags: Blogs United, Hampton Roads, Virginia blogs, Lt Gov Bolling, conferences

Testing Windows Live Writer again...

Well,so far it seems that LWriter is pretty good -I found the picture editing controls I hadn't seen before, and now I'm going to experiment a bit with the plugins I added for Flickr, video, emoticons...

I'm also interested in that "Insert map" function...

OK, that's good...  I had hoped to insert a map for the Log Cabin Resort on Lake Crescent in Washington State, but it wasn't working quite the way I wanted... That's all right, Hilton Grand Vacations Resort Waikoloa is a good alternate *snicker*

All right, let's try Flickr...

Oh, very good! This is a picture taken in Chatham earlier this spring. My car was getting cleaned and the oil changed, so I took a walk around town and snapped some pictures of the beautiful sights.

Ah, and the video embed works nicely,too, although I have to go get the URL manually, and there isn't a way to "auto login" to my own videos...

  And the emoticons seem to be working, too! Yay! Y'all know that I enjoy being, erm, expressive. It's nice to have more tools to show you what I'm thinking. You know, though... They need a Spock emoticon - one with a raised eyebrow and a "Humans are confusing" look.

Hm.... Good stuff - I may have found my new blog editor!

OK, can Microsoft produce something I actually like?

I've been using Anconia's RocketPost for quite a long while now when I compose my blog posts. It's not bad - certainly it was the best and most versatile program *I* had encountered - but it had its, erm, quirks, which have sometimes caused me major irritation.

But EveryThing TypePad has posted that Windows Live Writer has added some new features since the last time I tried it. In the interest of fairness, I thought I'd give it a go again...

So, what kind of fonts do we have available? Hm. Not bad.

I'm seeing an upload picture icon...

(That's my dream-bar, BTW - the Beloved Husband's cousin has that in his house. I'm jealous.)

OK, "insert photo" has no real controls to define size, neither does it have the "align right/left/center" - meh. Not too impressed with this, but it's sending me looking for the HTML window so I can go in and edit...

All right, for that, you need to go to the top menu and "View," or use shift+F11... OK, but you can edit the HTML. Good. From what I'm seeing right now, the code is nice and simple, but I don't really know code, so you might take that with a grain of salt...

Live Messenger will apparently allow me to view my stats and change the blog layout, too (running to check...) Ah, it simply opens up a window in my browser to those TPad pages. Fair enough, that works fine...

Hm. One - er, TWO - things RPost does that I like is a) it prefills the URL when I say "insert URL" and have copied it already, and b) RPost keeps an archive of my posts on my laptop, so regular backups are less of an issue. I bet that LWriter could do that, too, but I haven't found the function yet...

I also see "Insert tags" so...

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer

 

Technorati Tags: Rocket Post, blog tools

, ... All right, that's an all in one thing-y, where you type in all the tags you'd like in the pop-up window instead of linking them to text you've already typed... I think I like that...

There's a spell check, and I like that misspelled words have the wavy red line underneath... Does it have an "add to dictionary"? Yes, indeedy, it does, and a rather nice one, too... Definitely better than RPost's interface, AND I can move the window if it covers the word in question...

There is also an "add a plugin" button, and I'll check that out eventually, but I think it's time to post this...

Blogs United in Hampton Roads

Hey, people, please don't forget that the dates have changed from 10-12 August, 2007, to an earlier date: 13-15 July. I'm lucky, because this date is better for me, so I'll be there.

I'd suggest you make hotel reservations (linked at the Blogs United site) ASAP, but I'm not seeing the "Register!" button yet, so I'll keep an eye on it.

Typepad and Amazon team up...

... to create some cool specialty widgets. You'll notice on my right sidebar that I have some recommended items (please click - and buy! LOL), but there's also an HTML tag that TPad and Amazon have created: "a type='amzn'". So, if I want to search for Lee Strobel's books on Amazon

, I'm hoping that the format I just inserted will work. I'm going to post this and see what happens...

UPDATE: Worked like a champ, even when I was thinking I should have only linked "Lee Strobel."

TypePad is coming up with so many ease-of-use functions that I'm beginning to think I should quit using RocketPost, since I've been having so many bugs. Currently, RPost is frelling up my trackbacks: when the spell checker runs, anything in the trackback window disappears and is replaced by some of the spell-checked words. **GRF!!!**

Still, RPost has more fonts, more ability for keyboard commands (convenient for me for italics and bold face), and any pictures seem to upload better (except RPost absolutely cannot handle proper thumbnail pics which open to full size, Lord knows why).

TPad recently mentioned that Word2007 supports posting to TPad blogs (I assume it also supports other platforms), so I may look into that, even though the Beloved Husband likes Open Office (it's FREE!)...

Well, will it work now?

I've spent the whole weekend wrestling with the installation of RocketPost 2.0, from Anconia. I've been using 1.5x for a while, and while it had its quirks, it was the best thing I've seen (and yes, I've tried quite a few off line blog editors). So, I thought, what the heck, and upgraded to 2.0... Oh, boy, I hope this works... FINALLY!

Well, I suppose I shouldn't lie: I also spent a lot of time quilting (got 309 stripsets sub-cut and ready for making baby quilts; loaded and got a good start on a big scrap quilt; did a fair amount of re-organizing my quilt-stuff...); dragging stuff out of the basement storage (well, the Best Husband did that...) and chucking it into the "hangar;" and adding shelves so I can store books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes properly (again, thanks to the Beloved Husband!).

So, I didn't spend ALL weekend wrestling with R'Post... but it felt like it.

Will it work now? Oh, let me add a picture, just to make sure THAT works, too!

A Gretna sunset before Christmas, 2006

UPDATE: Oh, good - it seems to be working fine. Now, if I could only get the rest of my posts into the RP database....

Oh, how true!

They've got me pegged exactly!

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Thanks, Vivian!

It's Raven's fault...

'Cause she posted these two blogthings, and I got sucked right in...

Mocha Frappuccino

Hyper and driven, you'll take your caffeine any way you can get it. Frappuccinos are good, but you'd probably chew coffee beans in a crunch!

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

You Are a Skin Deep Sweetheart

You may be supermodel gorgeous or a plain Jane. It really doesn't matter, because you're confident and secure. You don't go out looking like a slob, but you are low maintenance. You have better things to worry about than whether your nails are the right shade!

Are You Obsessed With Your Looks?

Ah, well... At least I'm in good company... LOLOLOL!

Testing Evoca

Well... Apparently several of my friends have been having trouble with the Evoca "messenger" I just put in to the side bar.

That one. Right over there. ---------->

*I* attempted to record something, too. It appeared to go through (I did have to click an "allow this" button), but it's not appearing on the messenger window, and it didn't get sent through to my Evoca account/homepage, much less get e-mailed to me.

Here's something I recorded on the Evoca site. It won't let me post directly to TPad (yet), but it does offer HTML code. Will it work....? (UPDATE: Apparently so - and it's a cute little player, too)

Well, we'll just have to see... Nevertheless, I'm going to need to contact Evoca and/or TPad to figure out why the widget isn't working [pout].

New additions to the CatHouse

UPDATE (03Jan07): Well, for some reason, I cannot get the Evoca widget to work. The FAQ i read said that by widening the right sidebar to a minimum of 220px would probably work... didn't. So, it's coming off [pout]

Well, I got jealous of my dear brother, GM Roper, who installed this COOL voice message system on his blog a little while ago... So of course *I* had to be a copycat and go get my own. I'm very glad for TypePad Widgets, because the Evoca script practically loaded itself! You'll see it there in the right-hand column (yeah, kinda hard to miss... *snicker*).

Secondly, when you come to the CatHouse, you will be enjoying some lovely classical music. There's a Real Amplify player on the left column (hard to miss that one, too), right under my "eye." It's set to auto-play which some might dislike, but even so - beautiful music!!!

I only wish they also had a Christian music option...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy... and leave me a message! ;-)

Hello, Dodge City, KS

IP address 216.227.66.127.... How are you? Have you been enjoying my blog? I certainly hope so, 'cause you've visited at least once a day for a minimum of 45 minutes each time.

Now, either you're a really good friend (in which case why don't you say "Hi, Kat!"), or you're a certain someone who ("whom"?) I call 'the pustule." And if it's the pustule, no, I won't un-ban you, and no, I NEVER check out your blog.

Testing linkng to Flickr photos...

OK, will this work? And, will it work in such a war that I'm going to have to learn sizing, and borders and  so on to make it look pretty...? (Probably...)

UPDATE: Ah. Well. I told you so! I didn't see the different sizes that Flickr offered at the TOP of the photo page... The Darling Munchkin doesn't look too good with *MY* sizing, so why don't I use Flickr's?

MUCH better!

I really love my kitti-purrs...

  PixSmudgeSnuggle.2 
  Originally uploaded by Romeocat.

Even when they go thundering around the house when I'm trying to sleep. Fortunately, they *did* calm down long enough for me to go off into Dreamland last night, and I don't know WHAT the darling little monsters did after that...

I admit, I'm also testing out posting this pic to CHC from Flickr. The TPad uploader often takes about a century (well, I usually upload the full picture for click-to-enlarge, so I s'pose I shouldn't complain), so I'm wondering if it would be faster to upload pics to Flickr, and then "hotlink" to them from TPad.

I guess we'll see, won't we?

(UPDATE: Well, it looks rather nice, doesn't it? Of course, if I post from Flickr, they don't have any HTML tools, so I really ought to look at using the "img src" tag I guess. I'm going to look at the code Flickr used then posting this, and see how they did sizing and so on...)

Oh, migosh! I forgot!

Well, well - "Hippo birdies to me!"

Today is my second Blogiversary! I totally forgot... I started off at Blogger, but quickly grew tired of it and moved here to TypePad, which I love.

Wow. Two years - who'd'a thunk it? ;-)

All the thank-yous and stuff for Martinsville

Ah, finally a little time to gather my thoughts about Martinsville and then start writing about it.

First, of course I must begin by thanking Alton, Anne, and Mary for all their hard work. Things went very smoothly, and it was obvious they'd put a lot of thought and effort into the whole conference. BRAVO!!!

Barnie Day was an excellent M.C., even though he wasn't feeling tip-top. I really hope that his health improves some, because he is a very gracious and kind man, and I'd like to get to know him better. He also gave out his book, Notes from the sausage factory, which is an insider's look at the workings of the Virginia Congress. Barnie is a talented writer, so I'm very much looking forward to being richly entertained as well as educated!

My deep gratitude must also go out to the Conference's corporate sponsor, Smith River Community Bank. This generous bank put up some money to help defray the cost of the conference, no strings attatched. However, proper courtesy and gratitude require me to extend my personal thanks - I hope that someone who reads the Virginia blogs and sees this mention goes on in to the bank to see what they have to offer!

Steve Sisson, the Blue Dog, was also there and I got to chat with him more than I had at Sorenson. He's a riot! You've got to watch him closely, though, or he'll get in a little sly remark that you might miss ;-) He was also gracious enough to give me a copy of his book, Adventures in Warnerland, about his experiences in Virginia politics with Mark Warner, our previous governor. I'm sure it will be a great read, if it's got anything close to Steve's personal style.

*sigh* More for my pile of books-I-gotta-read. But these two, of course, will go to the top, and will be the next books I crack open. Make sure you bug me about them, 'cause I really am going to need to post my thoughts and impressions so these two excellent people will get some positive - I'm sure! - feedback.

(much more below the fold...)

Technorati tags: blogging, blog conference, Martinsville, McDonnell, Attorney General, Chris Saxon, Leslie Byrne, net neutrality, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, podcasting, defamation

RightBump has launched its beta

RightBump.com has launched its beta version, with the intent to launch in full on September first. Ron Williams, its owner/manager, is planning to use RightBump to promote conservative news stories and posts which may have been lost among all the LameStream Media hype.

Go check it out, and sign up!

Mocking meatbrain

Well, I have been wanting my own pet troll for awhile, and meatbrain is the only one so far that I've found. As trolls go, he's not bad, although he does tend to get rather repetitious and boring after a bit. However, I wanted a troll, and this appears to be the one God has chosen to give me.

I really rather like God's sense of humor at times...

Now, as my friends know, I banned meatbrain yesterday after his intransigence on this thread. Unfortunately, this caused him to go on over to Rocinate's Burdens, the author of the first of the two articles I quoted, and I really don't want to inconvenience Roci with this little... bundle of sweetness and light. And therefore, I lifted his ban, and told him he was allowed back here.

After all, I'm going to buy stock in bleach and antibiotics - I ought to rake in a fortune!

However, since we are all civilized people here, I'm going to outline the Rules of Engagement for mocking meatbrain.

• First and foremost - meat never gets to link to his blog here. His trackbacks are not allowed, he may not add hyperlinks to his blog in his comments, and I will never actively link to him in a "Mocking meatbrain" post. Ever.
• Secondly, meat will be restricted to (oh, I'm feeling generous) three questions per thread. He may not rephrase, he may not add, and he may not ask questions on another topic. Three questions, three questions only, and they must remain exactly as he originally writes them on the thread.
• Thirdly, meat must answer at least one question for every two comments he posts. He may even choose to answer one of his own questions, I don't care. But, for the conversation to progress and be productive, meatbrain must answer questions, too.
• Fourthly, I promise I will not edit meatbrain's comments except a) to remove any profanity (but, to his credit, I don't recall that's he's ever used it), b) to remove embedded URLs breaking Rule One, or c) to add any pithy comments I feel like - but I will make it quite clear that they are my remarks and not meatbrain's.

Now, for my dear blog-friends and myself, these are our rules:

• First, no ad hominem attacks. You (my blog family and I, of course) may not call meatbrain a moron, an idiot, a fathead, an a**hole (remember my Rules for Chatting in the CatHouse), etc. However, you may criticize his actions, statements, and attitudes all you like. No swearing, of course. But, while you cannot say "meatbrain is a moron," you CAN say, "meatbrain, your statement is moronic." Oh, and needless to say, threats of physical violence are not allowed. meatbrain is of a delicate nature, and would never dream of engaging in fisticuffs. Even mild insults tend to send him into a tizzy. Poor baby.
• Second, you may ask him all the questions you like, but please keep them relatively impersonal. I really do not want to know the details of meatbrain's private life; my stomach isn't that strong. Feel free to repeat the question as often as you like, certainly you may accuse him of evading it, and of course you may switch gears entirely in the middle of the argument - even if everything goes hopelessly off topic. I realize this may mean that meatbrain's original three questions may never be answered, but - hey! - that's life sometimes. Too bad.
• Thirdly, in the comments on "Mocking meatbrain" posts, you may choose to simply ignore him and talk about the weather, or what you had for dinner last week, or the movie you saw last night, or the vacation you're planning next month - I don't care. You might even take a stab at reading his mind (although I'm not certain there's much there - "See Dick run" is probably as sophisticated as it gets), or maybe you'd like to speculate on his fashion sense (or lack thereof), his eating habits, his profession (now remember, he's got a tender ego - don't be mean!), or his dating success. However, remember rules one and two for us, all right?
• Finally, we will all agree to never ever EVER visit meatbrain's links if a) they link to his blog, b) they're a "tiny URL" type link, or c) we don't feel like it.

There, I think that about takes care of it. I think these rules are entirely fair and reasonable, don't you? I may add to them or tweak them as I get suggestions from my friends, but I think these will do for now.

Oh, and I should remind meatbrain of Rule the Third as well as the second-to-last paragraph of my Rules for Chatting in the CatHouse:

Rule the Third: All opposing opinions are welcome, as long as they are in conformity to Rules One and Two. If you really want to try to persuade me to your point of view, use well-reasoned arguments supported by documentation from places other than the Democratic Underground and other places infested by Barking Moonbats on Speed(tm). Please remember that I am like most people: coaxing me works far better than beating me over the head.[...]

Finally, I reserve the right to interpret any of these rules to mean whatever I choose, and may at any point revise, retract, or remove them at my whim.

Shall we all enjoy ourselves now?

New blog traffic exchange

A friend of mine has just purchased BlogSoldiers, and is encouraging new sign ups. So, if you'd like to get more traffic on your blog, go on over and sign up! It's free - or, if you don't have time to surf, you can buy credits.

Go check it out!

A small change...

Just so y'all know, I'm going to drop the "Romeocat" for most uses and go to just "Kat." It reflects my real name more accurately, and will be easier to deal with when Wide Awakes Radio debuts on July 4th.

It's also easier to type! ;-)

Don't forget, my show, "Sunday Thoughts with Kat" will be streaming on Sundays from 430-5pm ET, so please join me for some encouraging thoughts in the Scriptures. For my first show, on the ninth of July, I will state my doctrine as clearly as I can, so you know where I'm coming from.

I hope that you will join me!

AFTERTHOUGHT: Oh, I also changed the picture on the upper left. Can you see what's different? *heh*

Just Stuff...

I'm far too happy about the news of Zarqawi, and I'm trying to learn PhotoShop Elements 4, so I think I'll just post some interesting links I've come across...

• GORGEOUS rainbow!
• Awww, too bad. NOT!
• More memory! (Lord knows *I* need it...)
• Oh, like we're really surprised [rolls eyes]
• Is it really going to be "newer and better"?
• Do we care?
• This could be fantastically helpful...
• Volcanoes are always interesting
• Good. Maybe they'll stop the re-makes...