i’ve changed the way i do anti-spam. i tried to upgrade the captcha thing i used because some robot had cracked its images and could get past them. but i couldn’t get the upgrade to work so i took the old software out.
i’ve installed a new package that does a more sophisticated scan, and so you might not get asked for a captcha every time. instead, it’ll ask for one if it thinks you might have just submitted spam.
i finally got wp set up so that it will email me (again) when someone posts a comment. this hasn’t worked in a long time, and the way wordpress does it is slightly confuzzling, but i got some help on #wordpress and life has gone on.
also, sue has gotten interested in having her own blog, because of a new interest in getting back online. so i got her a domain, and will be setting up her copy of wordpress here shortly. a link when she starts posting.
i really love doing this, and i love hosting my own site, but really … sometimes this all night shit needs to give way to … sleep. 
the thumbnail: i didn’t do especially well in this telling. i’ve been sick for the past three days and really didn’t have the energy to prepare the way i thought i should. next time i’ll do better, and post the results of that. meantime: here it is. (17.4 meg, 42:20, 56k mp3). please save to disk, do not stream.
i know i keep going on and on and on and on about this, but it’s an important choice.
the more i look at a geology major, the more i like it. there are downsides, though:
- i thought that i had to take another eight hours of a non-geology science: my choice of biology, chemistry, or physics. it turns out i have to take biology, chemistry, andand physics, eight hours each, the ones for science majors.
the downside is that it’s a total of 24 hours of courses that are likely to be difficult. the upside, though, is that if you’re going to be a science major, go ahead and be a science major.
- the sheer number of hours. the core cirriculum that every student must take regardless of degree is 45 hours. at the end of this semester i will have all 45 completed. i’ve also got another 8 hours that will transfer, 4 of which i actually must have.
but i need a total of -another- 111 hours, or, at 12 hours per semester, another five years, which will actually go down some because of some stuff that’s only offered in summer. even so, that will take me to a total of 160 hours, a full 40 more than required for the degree.
- the sheer number of hours of lower-division crap i need to take at the local junior college, but can’t. i have another 37 hours of lower-division stuff i need to take, but in addition to the 49 hours i already have that i need to transfer, i can only transfer another 23 hours from the community college, because the big university will only take 72 transfer hours.
that means i need to figure out which courses would be better to take at the community college, and which would be better to take at the big house.
i thinking i should take the math courses i need — there are four, in sequence — at the community college. i might also take either physics or chemistry (more likely chemistry). at least the required physics courses aren’t calculus-based courses. (there is a god.)
– language. the language requirement is easier; for a BS I need to do 8 hours of foreign language and 6 additional hours of “cross-cultural” education, which could be shit like african history, latin american politics, or far eastern something or other.
figuring all of this out is extremely complex. each course has prerequisities and must be taken in the correct sequence. many of the prereqs are stuff like biochem 2 (which means taking chem 1, chem 2, and biochem 1 first).
i need to call over there and make an advisement appointment. bad. this just can’t be right.
so i’ve been blessed with comment spam. thank you, but my blog’s readers’ penises are already long enough, and we have plenty of xanax to go around.
to combat it, i must impose on my dear readers (all three of them): if you wish to enter a comment, you’ll now have to enter a code. the code is a radomly-generated string that’s displayed to you as a graphic (that a spam-posting robot can’t read); you enter it as text, proving (at least in theory) you’re human.
this is called a “captcha.” i don’t know or care about the derivation of the word; i only know i’ve fought it for two days and it’s finally working.
and yes, i did accidentally delete a post. i don’t really remember what it was about.
as a jew, i feel compelled to comment on something that i was told about a couple days ago, and just got the opportunity to track down. i was horrified.
jews are commanded to circumcize boys at 8 days of age. this is typically done by a person called a mohel (or moyel if you’re from eastern european traditions). typically a circumcision isn’t a big deal, and frequently, at least in the united states, it’s done in the hospital early and the mohel is more a formality than anything else.
this is important to me because my own boys were circumcised in the hospital, and while we’re raising them jewish, it’s necessary for me to have them formally converted to judiasm. because jewishness is passed maternally and my wife is catholic, my kids are officially not jewish. at this point it’s a drop-your-pants-for-a-quick-prick-and-bleed for them. in another post i’ll bitch about how i think it’s stupid to even require this for them at this point.
anyway, onward. new york papers are now reporting a case in which rabbi yitzchok fischer seems to have given at least three boys a case of herpes.
it works like this: rabbi dipshit whacks foreskin, and then to make it bleed to “cleanse the wound” he
after one of the affected children died of his herpes infection, the new york department of health ordered rabbi dipshit to quit it while they figured out whether or not the herpes came from him. he
and this is not the first time this has been recorded.
and some are now bitching about the new york department of health attempting to regulate religion. puhleeze.
it makes one wonder how far “tradition” should go and when we stop some of these practices and recognize that this is disgusting and dangerous.
the wreck of the old 97
—–
well they gave him his orders at monroe, virginia
said steve, you’re way behind time
this is not 38, this is ol’ 97,
put her into spencer on time.
then he turned around and said to his black, greasy fireman,
shovel on a little more coal.
and when we cross that white oak mountain,
watch ol’ ‘97 roll.
and then a telegram come from washington station,
this is how it read
oh that brave engineer that run ol 97,
is lyin in old danville dead.
‘cuz he was going down a grade making 90 miles an hour
the whistle broke into a scream.
he was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle
scalded to death by the steam.
one more time!
oh, now all you ladies you’d better take a warning
from this time on and learn
never speak hard words to your true-lovin’ husband
he may leave you and never return
poor boy.
—–
as performed by johnny cash
live at san quentin prison
lyrics by david g george
no doubt there is a copyright on this thing somewhere
the history of this song is cool reading. these guys even have an audio clip from the original recording.
on friday, february 11, i’ll be telling my story at the eastside group, at 8pm. so if you want to come and heckle, please do.
i’m tempted to record what i say with my little voice recorder and post the result here.
i’m really tempted.
i’m really stupid, too. so … what do you think? would you give a shit?
in other news, apparently the office manager job at the local central office has changed hands again. you’ll recall that i got fired from there not too long ago, which is just as well, but it doesn’t change the fact that i still haven’t gotten my w2, which i desparately need to do my taxes. i’ll go down there next week and meet the new victim and see where the fuck my paperwork is.