Blog Master G

At last: I can finally view my own Web site from home. Woohoo! Even though I moved my site to a new host on Wednesday of this week, it took an extra day or two for the DNS entries to propogate fully with Earthlink. I was able to view my Web site from work just fine, but kept getting an error when trying to view it from home about the Web site being temporarily unavailable. I learned during this process that DNS has to propogate in three places: registrar, Web host, and ISP. Apparently the ISP is the slowest of the bunch. But all is well now.

My Dad’s boss, Bill Bagley, is being honored tonight as U.C. Berkeley’s Alumnus of the Year:

A Golden Bear of a man

He’s done a great deal for California — from making the roads better and the Bay Area bridges lit up to being a key legislator in passing the Freedom of Information Act. Congrats on this honor, Bill.

I donated blood today. Back in August 2002 I joined the 1-Gallon Club, so giving blood is nothing new for me (today was my 9th time). But it’s such an important thing to do, especially now as we sit on the brink of war. Yes, a potential war will even impact people in need of blood. Why? Blood will be shipped to the Middle East for U.S. soldiers and the Iraqi civilians who will surely be maimed, taking it away from patients in your hometown and mine who are already in desperate need of blood transfusions. The blood supply is always short in every town across the country — from Charlotte to Bucks County to East Texas to Savannah — so please consider donating today. You will be helping a fellow human.

I migrated to a new Web host this week and am having some problems getting procmail and spamassassin to play nice. I just put up the following post in the forum and would appreciate any input in case I’m missing something obvious:

Procmail/spamassassin Weirdness” href=”http://www.totalchoicehosting.com/forums/index.php?s=063e43e93be83870d77f7b811662495b&act=ST&f=22&t=1029″>Web Hosting by TotalChoice Hosting -> Procmail/spamassassin Weirdness

Thank goodness there’s still hope for this country:

Yahoo! News – Poll Shows Bush Would Lose to Democrat in Election

I migrated my site to Total Choice Web Hosting yesterday and as of this morning, things seem to have settled nicely into place.

My previous post was the first blog entry using my new infrastructure, and I’m happy to report that MT hauls ass, as does email and the rest of my site. So far, so good.

Please let me know if you notice anything out of the ordinary. (Thanks to Dave (Mr. Beta) for reporting a bug in my blog this morning, which has since been resolved.)

It really cracks me the hell up how people manage to find my blog. It’s fun to keep an eye on my Web logs, which tell me the Google searches people do that lead to pages on my site. Entries on my blog will pop up as the number one (or close to it) result for lots of different searches. Some I’ve noticed in the past include sociopathic personality, 2003 bridesmaid dresses, and most diverse city. This one from this morning, however, has got to take the cake:

Google Search: car pees on dog

I am proud to be the number one search result for that awesome phrase, which leads to my post When Dogs Attack (Your Car). My only question is this: Where the hell do people come up with phrases like this? Is it for pure entertainment value, or are people actually looking for pictures of cars peeing on dogs?

He Kept His Shirt On — And Got Arrested

It’s beyond me what is happening in this country. Thanks to Bush, the media, and the fear they are creating, this country is becoming a police state wherein our Constitutional rights aren’t worth a damn and people who exhibit their First Amendment right can be thrown in jail for a silent protest. I’m speechless about this. But I’ll be damned if I would have complied. Kudos to Roger and Stephen Downs for not giving in to the demands of the communist mall security and Albany police.

(The mall where this happened — Crossgates in Albany, NY — is where Jen and I went, along with James and Tracy, over Christmas.)

Take a close look at number 54 in this map. It’s on the far left. Click on the image for a larger view, if need be. Remember that spot, then read on.

Homewood Trail Map

GabeVC99: ben and i did this crazy run on sunday at homewood.
PmjAjr: yeah..
GabeVC99: we realized afterward – after we hiked across streams and up hills after the run – that it was marked not with a single or double black diamond but with an orange exclamation point!
GabeVC99: and it said, “check with ski patrol.”
GabeVC99: ha!
GabeVC99: it ruled.
GabeVC99: it was almost a 90-degree angle run.
PmjAjr: no shit! that rocks!
GabeVC99: in what seemed like an avalanche test zone
PmjAjr: that must have kicked some serious shit
GabeVC99: check it: http://www.skihomewood.com
GabeVC99: the orange exclamation point on far left.
PmjAjr: alright
PmjAjr: oh damn, that looks gangster
GabeVC99: hells yeah!
GabeVC99: it ruled. i so wish i had my camera.
GabeVC99: there were the most incredible views of the lake and all of tahoe – we could see all the way to the south shore.

Iraq has already destroyed 19 missiles. Why should we attack? What sense does it make to attack a country that is cooperating? I know: Let’s attack Iraq to prevent them from using weapons of mass destruction that they’ll surely use if we don’t attack. Right.

I just signed this Emergency Petition to the Security Council. You, too, can do the same. Here’s the email with all the details and a copy of the letter that will be sent to the U.N.