All posts by Mush

About Mush

I want to be a veterinarian because I love children.

Installations

MP3s, Web

In which I do my administratrix thing.

I upgraded goblinbox to WordPress v2.0.2 today! It was terrifyingly easy! I’m so happy it’s hard not to squeal.

I also installed a calendar over at house-11.com. It’s supposed to be so the band can put their schedules in there so we know when rehearsals are and when gigs are, but it seems weirdly slow and hard-to-use so I might find another calendar app instead.

Anyway, nutshell: I installed lotsa software today. (Yes, I do realize that you couldn’t care less. Yes, I do know this might very well be the most boring entry you’ve ever read. I really only posted it to make sure WP was still working.)

In other news, here’s an old Queen song.

Sunday

Weather

In which it only rained.

The NWS cancelled the tornado watch just before I shut my computer down and the satellite went out. It got really windy and a storm front rolled in; it rained like hell for awhile and that was it. Bread called from Fairfield to say they were getting grape-sized hail.

No tornadoes. Whew. It did remain blustery and rainy throughout the night.

I made tacos for dinner at about ten. Bread ate a package of goldfish crackers (because apparently he no longer eats the vegetarian taco filling I’ve always served). We watched Big Love on HBO and went to bed.

Between the time change and the power flickering enough to set all the clocks flashing, there was absolutely no hope of my getting to work on time today. I still feel bad about rolling in late, though. I hate DST. It’s sooooo stupid. Why can’t we just pick a time and stay there all goddamned year long?

Tornadic Activity

Blurbs, Weather

In which the weather is expected to get heavy, man, heavy.

Bread woke me up from a deep sleep this morning. Bread and three dogs and a cat all got in bed with me and wiggled and demanded my attention. I felt like I was surfacing from a still and silent depth into a world of wiggling, giggling, licking fur. I was annoyed to be awake but he came bearing a latte, a mocha he’d made, so that made it all right. I stumbled groggily out of bed, grasped my hot mug of creamy beverage, and followed him downstairs to sit in front of the woodstove.

wood stove

He regaled me with a story of how he and all the pets had caught and released a bird that had somehow gotten into the house; at one point both Stella and Buz had launched themselves at the poor bird and smacked into each other. Bread admitted to nearly peeing himself it was so funny.

He tells me the Weather Channel wants us to go buy groceries and batteries for the weather radio. We’re to expect tornadic activity this afternoon. “Are we gonna?” I mumbled. “Get groceries and batteries?”

“We went grocery shopping yesterday,” he reminded me. “And we’ve got batteries. But I don’t know where the weather radio is.”

“It’s around here somewhere,” I said, gesturing vaguely and sipping my mocha, eyes barely open.

He laughed. “You should go back to bed,” he said, mussing my hair.

“I was sound asleep,” I mumbled, swaying in the chair.

‘Tornadic,’ I’ll have you know, is one of Bread’s most favorite words. He says it like he’s from Texas, with a silly little drawl. Tohr-NAAH-dic.

Looking Ahead

Blurbs

In which I consider how I spend my time.

I almost always drive in the left lane when I’m driving through Fairfield. The outside lanes are cracked and pitted and I don’t like them because they’re so bumpy, so I spend an inordinate amount of time behind people who are waiting to turn left. (The main drag through town is four lanes; no turn lane.)

When I’m old and dying, this is the kind of thing that will flash before my eyes.

In other news, I can’t stop clicking on the random image box and reading old posts. There’s just something so neato about trolling one’s own archives!

Layout Disaster! Ack!

Work

In which what the fuck?!

So when I checked on goblinbox before bed last night, everything looked fine. This morning my layout was all hosed and funky looking, and I — believe it or not — didn’t do it. I wasn’t even there! (It’s usually my fault, when the site’s screwy-looking, though I rarely admit it.)

So I changed my password just in case and then changed back to an older theme. I’m sure y’all recognize it. Links were orange, now they’re purple, but it’s an old theme. Maybe it’s time for a new spring theme or something.

I added Justinsomnia’s Random Image plugin today, which is amusing me greatly. It pulls an image from an old post and displays it over there at the right; if you click on the pic it takes you to the old post. Whee!

In other news, one of the two remaining Cobalt web servers here at work is dying a hideous death. (The password files are corrupted so users of the three remaining domains can’t connect or check their email or nothin’.) Been madly transferring domains to the new outsourced server, calling customers, faxing things, updating DNS. Whee again!

Starving. Going to get some lunch.

Three Unrelated Things

Blurbs

In which I write a short list.

1. It’s nice outside. Nice! No coat, no hat, breeze, walked-to-lunch, bugs are appearing, isn’t-this-lovely nice. (It’s about fuckin’ time.)

2. The Exploding Uterus Fairy has been by, and smacked me with her Cramps From Hell™ stick. (I hate her.)

3. I read this article today, and I totally resonated with it. But I can’t figure out if I’m an introvert or an extrovert. I need alone time, lots of it. Love too to be the life of the party. I think in public by talking, I also think in private in silence. I have no idea why anyone would want to have a conversation over breakfast, but I can party like it’s 1999 at the drop of a hat. I’m really extroverted. I’m really introverted. (Can a person be both?)

In other news, my co-worker Buzz just called my cell phone using CID spoofing and he rang in as Bread! I told him I’m going to kill him. What if I’d answered the phone with, “hey, how’s your cock” or something?!

Copyright. Bah.

MP3s, Soapbox

In which I’m in SO much trouble.

I’m no longer allowed to post MP3s on this server ’cause I keep getting in trouble for it.

If I understand it right, goblinbox.com is physically located on a server colocated at The Planet, which is, I think, a server farm somewhere in California. I think my buddy Keef owns the box in question, and shares its operating costs with an awesome friend of his, Codergirl. Or something. To be honest I never really asked and the point is that I get free hosting so I need to be a good girl about it!

The first time I got in trouble for hosting copyrighted material, it was totally my fault. I’d been posting occasional playlists for y’all to check out, and/or uploading files for my own use and then spacing out on deleting the files later. The Planet got a lawyerly letter, which they forwarded to Codergirl, who forwarded it Keef, who forwarded to me. Codergirl’d gzipped’d the files together for me and put them below the site’s root, but I didn’t really need them so I deleted the file. Problem solved.

This time when I got in trouble The Planet actually disabled my account for a bit and said something about this being my second offence. Well, it’s actually all Jethro’s fault (tee-hee!) because I let him store a bunch of music files on my server while he was in between computers. (There were no links to the files, but because goblinbox.com is so well-indexed the files were easily located by lawyers. Natch.)

My account’s been restored now, and all those files are gone. Deleted. Erased. No more. The only MP3s on this site now are recordings I’m actually personally on. I guess if I feel the need to post music in the future, I’ll do it offsite at one of those free file hosting places.

The thing about these damned MP3 files is that you don’t really own them. Say you go out and spend your hard-earned pay on an album and take it home and rip it so that you can have a copy on your computer, another on your MP3 player, a copy in your truck, and so you can burn a backup CD in case the original gets scratched. You own the physical CD and can do pretty much anything you want with it: you can play it on any stereo you encounter, you can lend it to your buddy, you can leave it out in public where anyone can get it and listen to it, etc. But you emphatically can not store electronic files of that CD in a public place for your own use or the use of your friends and family without breaking the law and eventually getting a nice letter from a solicitor somewhere that goes something like, “We have learned that your service is hosting infringing files on its network. These files contain sound recordings by the artist known as Jamiroquai. These sound recordings are owned by one of our member companies and have not been authorized for this kind of use. We have a good faith belief that the above-described activity is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.”

The more ‘free’ MP3s come through my life, the more money I spend on music! I wish the entire world would go check out Baen’s Free Library experiment or JPK’s Free Reads or any of the thousands of musicians who post loss leader MP3s and shut the hell up about filesharing and copyright infringement already fer chrissakes. If I run across one or two songs I like, I’ll buy the album. I may not do it immediately, but I do buy it eventually. Since I don’t listen to the radio or watch MTV or have any exposure to new music whatsoever, the only way I’m ever going to find music I wanna buy is if it comes to me in the form of an electronic file I can put on my iPod.

Carrying around space-hogging CDs is so nineties.

Weekend in Review

Blurbs

In which I miss the BBQ. Of course.

Today a bunch of friends came out for a BBQ, but it didn’t really get into full swing until past 2:30. I had to leave for band practice, but Bread made me this stunning portabello mushroom with sauteed peppers and swiss on a bun thing, to go, so at least I didn’t starve.

I think there were five or six people here, enjoying the spring-like weather, eating outside, socializing. *sigh* I bet it was fun. (I don’t know for sure, though, because everyone was gone when I got home and Bread was asleep on the couch.)

Band practice was fun, as always. I have such a crush on those folks. PJK taught us his latest song and man is it good. Makes me feel like I need to bust out my guitar and write something new myself.

~+~+~
The memorial was lovely. The day was long, though.

MIL came over at 7:30. We left here at eight, caravaning, stopped in Ottumwa and went shopping at the Super Wal-Mart because it was the only thing open at that hour. Bread got black pants, a black sweater, black shoes, a black belt. I got a black purse… and a brown prairie skirt out of the fat chicks’ section. (I love half the clothes in the fat section. The first iteration of the new brown skirt that I picked up was like a size 22 or something, but I found a 14 that works. The waist is elastic, whew.)

After buying clothes, we ate at Country Kitchen then drove to JG’s eldest son’s house in Harford. He drove MIL, Bread and I rode in Bread’s truck. Eldest son and MIL went to the church, Bread and I stopped so he could get a haircut and his beard trimmed. (It was $13. For a cut and a trim. Love Iowa.)

The service was for both JG and his mother, who had passed in December. I think a mother/son service is particularly sad, but the pastor who did the mother’s service gave a nice homily about death being like the transformation a seed must go through to become a tree. A family friend did JG’s service and told the kinds of intimate stories and jokes only a good friend can. She played a Waylon song that had been one of JG’s favorites and MIL burst into tears.

After the service, there was food in the basement. A lot of people came, which MIL said was really gratifying. We’d arrived at 12:30; left around four. Met a lot of sweet people.

MIL bought us dinner at Spaghetti’s in Osky on the way home; we discussed the service and the distribution of JG’s things. She really seemed like the memorial service had given her a lot of closure… she even made a joke about forgetting her husband at the eldest son’s house (we had to swing back so she could get his ashes). She’s going back to work Monday, she says so she won’t stay home and wallow and sniffle all day. I think she’s terribly brave and strong.

Got home around eight. Hung out for awhile, ravished each other, went to sleep.

In other news, I’m practically well now, so my personality should be returning any minute. Amusing, thoughtful, well-written posts shall resume shortly.

On Electronics and My Love of Them

Blurbs

In which goblinbox.com looks mediocre at 16 bit.

At work, I have a pretty hot computer and monitor. This is because I’ve worked there for so long that the box I had originally died and was replaced (finally). At home, I have a box my dad built me, with a monitor he got me for cheap.

At work, the orange banner is rich and beautiful, and the green is an intriguing olive with darker tones. At home? The site looks mediocre.

Oh, well.

I want a laptop, but I don’t want to spend two grand — even though I know I’d fall in love with a Mac laptop running OSX… I did a little used laptop shopping online today, and gave myself a wicked case of laptop envy.

I also want a new PPC. The one I have now is old and obsolete, and even though it still does everything I need it to do I want a sleeker, newer, faster, cuter one with the latest opsys.

And of course I want a new iPod, even though the one I have now isn’t even full yet. I lust after the form factor of the latest generation iPods, plus: video.

What else? Oh, I’d take a sleek, thin new cell phone, though the one I have does the job nicely.

In a nutshell, I lust after electronic devices. Maybe I need to get a second job. *wink*

In other news, we’re leaving at 8 tomorrow morning for the memorial service. We have to stop in ScrOttumwa to buy Bread some black slacks and shoes because he doesn’t own any (and redheads look, in my opinion, fantastic in black). Then we’ll drive a couple of hours up to some little town called Hartford, IA for a one o’clock celebration of life service, then back home again. Hopefully it doesn’t snow again, like it did today. MIL is doing as well as can be expected; we went out for dinner with her last night and it seems she’s soldiering through. JG’s union is coming through with a nice check to help her with all the expenses and I think that will ease her worry some, which is something she certainly deserves. I feel so much for her.

Again, I admonish you to hug someone you care for. Remember that Leo Buscalia guy, who was all about the hugging? Hugging is soooo good for you. Peace, my babies.

Snot-locked

Health

In which my day was so boring it’s practically a waste of pixels to even write about it.

I took so many naps yesterday I can’t even count them. Bread was in and out between here and his mom’s place.

I was awake at 6:30 or so when he called from the Dead Cock to announce that SB was in town with a bottle of Jamieson’s from Ireland and was I well enough to come have some? No, I wasn’t, but I encouraged him to have fun. He deserved it.

He rolled in an hour later with BoS and they ate the rest of the soup I’d made myself earlier — basically a cream of potato soup with peas and fresh dill in it — and BoS told me it was really really really good and they sat on the couch for awhile and then BoS left and Bread passed out from the whiskey.

I slept all night and then some, emailed work, hacked up a lung, worked on the Amma Iowa site a little, napped, drove the jeep to the barn for kindling (disgustingly lazy, I know, but it’s cold and I’M SICK), built a fire, took a nap, built another fire, made the world’s weirdest black bean coconut soup, ate, and am about to:

POP QUIZ!
Please pick one:
1. Make a sculpture
2. Take a nap
3. Do my nails

Didja guess 2, Take a nap? Didja? Because if you did, you’re right! Tonight we’re going to MIL’s for supper around seven so I gotta get my beauty sleep.