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Mar. 5th, 2004 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2My main computer is still spewing pop-up ads. I installed Google's toolbar but it can't block pop-ups that are being generated by a program within my own computer. Spykiller said to wait 24 hours for my sekrit "unlocking" code that will allow me to actually kill these programs... it's been nearly 24 hours now and I've heard nothing. But I see that you can visit their web site, enter your e-mail address, and get the code that way... after 24 hours have passed since the purchase anyway.
The one thing that worries me is that, even though I know I entered my e-mail address correctly, they didn't force you to enter it twice. So what if I messed it up? Then I guess I get to harrass them a little or something.
The funny thing is that I got my new computer up and running just in time for my old one to reveal some serious virus/spyware infections. At least now I have AdAware installed on the three other machines which I currently have on my network... but unfortunately I've seen that AdAware doesn't catch everything. It thinks my computer is clean. After all, it's a free program... a very good one but apparently not as complete as some of the not-for-free varieties.
Tom bought a new anime series yesterday and was raving about it non-stop. It's some sort of Steampunk type of thing. He said it was a "Steampunk version of Escaflowne" and "had an art style just like Miyazaki".
Perhaps I'm just perverse, but when Tom was talking about Gatekeepers a day earlier (Tom Milliorn lent him a couple of anime dvds), he said it was a pretty cool series, and so I was interested in watching it. But when he foams at the mouth about how great this new series is, how it's the next Miyazaki/Evangelion epic, just because it happens to be a Steampunk anime which is of course up his alley... well, I tend to take that with a big grain of salt. I'm actually less inclined to watch it. Tom watches a lot more video/movies/etc than I do, but I sometimes find his ability to be objective about animation quality, characterization, and story suspect. He's been known to say "it's just like Miyazaki!" when it really is nothing of the sort to my eyes. Anything with old planes or steampunk stylings grabs him by the throat and becomes another Wings of Honneamise or Laputa or Nausicaa.
But the series looked interesting enough. I'll have to watch it at some point.
Politicians say such stupid things sometimes. I was listening to political debates earlier this week after Kerry's big Super Tuesday landslide victory (or whatever it was). One voice for the White House reminded the listeners that "John Kerry stands for the old Democratic ideals. He represents higher taxes and greater spending."
Um... call me confused, but how in the world can ANYONE represent higher spending than George Dubya "Mr. Bunnypants" Bush? Maybe we should note once again that some of the most ardent conservatives in the Republican party are expressing concerns about our out-of-control spending and saying that we can't afford more tax cuts.
Well anyway, political pundits are pretty easy to shoot down. I should resist I guess.
I haven't accomplished much writing this week. Got most of the first scene of "A Little Respect" done, because I was thinking of posting it here or to the list or something just as proof that I'm actually doing something. ^_^ But I've been watching anime the last few nights, and working on my computers last night. I watched the last dvd of Hellsing... nasty. That's all I'm going to say about it. And it doesn't really end... they could easily add more to the series if they wanted to.
Did I talk about what's been going on over at Toontown Central? A month or more ago they cracked down, issued stricter rules, added moderators and gave them the right to delete anything that fell outside their vision for the message boards. This means all-G rated content, no name calling or naming names of anyone you have a problem with, no heated discussions, etc. It is after all a board with a lot of children on it. But they've gone a bit overboard in my opinion, which is typical for a message board. You start out with a small group of people who all get along fine, but as the thing grows you have more people with more opinions, and less cohesion, and people willing to ignore rules and civility... then people complain about the board going downhill, and they reminiss about the good old days... and ultimately those in control of the board try to restore a little law and order and get labelled as jack-booted Nazis for their hard work.
Anyway we've now reached the next stage in the message board evolution... convinced that their rights to free speech or whatever were being trampled upon, several members of the board have started their own no-holds-barred, anything-goes, no-moderators-at-all adult Toontown message board. It's a very nice looking board, very well set up. And the guy who set it up took the opportunity to immediately drag one of the moderators of the original TTC board through the coals, using vulgar language and descriptions and names. You know, exercising his rights to free speech, or whatever you want to call it.
Having the right to say anything you want does not, in my book, mean you must be as offensive and vulgar as humanly possible. And since this came from the guy who set up the board, I must say I'm very much disinclined to hang around very long. I guess in some people's books, being "adult" means something very different from being "mature". I only had a few minutes to examine the board before I went to work this afternoon... I'll have to check it out a little more. But if "no moderators" means a free-for-all pissing match then I'm not interested.
You know, with great power comes great responsibility. I can swear in my livejournal all I want to... but I usually restrain myself. ^_^
The one thing that worries me is that, even though I know I entered my e-mail address correctly, they didn't force you to enter it twice. So what if I messed it up? Then I guess I get to harrass them a little or something.
The funny thing is that I got my new computer up and running just in time for my old one to reveal some serious virus/spyware infections. At least now I have AdAware installed on the three other machines which I currently have on my network... but unfortunately I've seen that AdAware doesn't catch everything. It thinks my computer is clean. After all, it's a free program... a very good one but apparently not as complete as some of the not-for-free varieties.
Tom bought a new anime series yesterday and was raving about it non-stop. It's some sort of Steampunk type of thing. He said it was a "Steampunk version of Escaflowne" and "had an art style just like Miyazaki".
Perhaps I'm just perverse, but when Tom was talking about Gatekeepers a day earlier (Tom Milliorn lent him a couple of anime dvds), he said it was a pretty cool series, and so I was interested in watching it. But when he foams at the mouth about how great this new series is, how it's the next Miyazaki/Evangelion epic, just because it happens to be a Steampunk anime which is of course up his alley... well, I tend to take that with a big grain of salt. I'm actually less inclined to watch it. Tom watches a lot more video/movies/etc than I do, but I sometimes find his ability to be objective about animation quality, characterization, and story suspect. He's been known to say "it's just like Miyazaki!" when it really is nothing of the sort to my eyes. Anything with old planes or steampunk stylings grabs him by the throat and becomes another Wings of Honneamise or Laputa or Nausicaa.
But the series looked interesting enough. I'll have to watch it at some point.
Politicians say such stupid things sometimes. I was listening to political debates earlier this week after Kerry's big Super Tuesday landslide victory (or whatever it was). One voice for the White House reminded the listeners that "John Kerry stands for the old Democratic ideals. He represents higher taxes and greater spending."
Um... call me confused, but how in the world can ANYONE represent higher spending than George Dubya "Mr. Bunnypants" Bush? Maybe we should note once again that some of the most ardent conservatives in the Republican party are expressing concerns about our out-of-control spending and saying that we can't afford more tax cuts.
Well anyway, political pundits are pretty easy to shoot down. I should resist I guess.
I haven't accomplished much writing this week. Got most of the first scene of "A Little Respect" done, because I was thinking of posting it here or to the list or something just as proof that I'm actually doing something. ^_^ But I've been watching anime the last few nights, and working on my computers last night. I watched the last dvd of Hellsing... nasty. That's all I'm going to say about it. And it doesn't really end... they could easily add more to the series if they wanted to.
Did I talk about what's been going on over at Toontown Central? A month or more ago they cracked down, issued stricter rules, added moderators and gave them the right to delete anything that fell outside their vision for the message boards. This means all-G rated content, no name calling or naming names of anyone you have a problem with, no heated discussions, etc. It is after all a board with a lot of children on it. But they've gone a bit overboard in my opinion, which is typical for a message board. You start out with a small group of people who all get along fine, but as the thing grows you have more people with more opinions, and less cohesion, and people willing to ignore rules and civility... then people complain about the board going downhill, and they reminiss about the good old days... and ultimately those in control of the board try to restore a little law and order and get labelled as jack-booted Nazis for their hard work.
Anyway we've now reached the next stage in the message board evolution... convinced that their rights to free speech or whatever were being trampled upon, several members of the board have started their own no-holds-barred, anything-goes, no-moderators-at-all adult Toontown message board. It's a very nice looking board, very well set up. And the guy who set it up took the opportunity to immediately drag one of the moderators of the original TTC board through the coals, using vulgar language and descriptions and names. You know, exercising his rights to free speech, or whatever you want to call it.
Having the right to say anything you want does not, in my book, mean you must be as offensive and vulgar as humanly possible. And since this came from the guy who set up the board, I must say I'm very much disinclined to hang around very long. I guess in some people's books, being "adult" means something very different from being "mature". I only had a few minutes to examine the board before I went to work this afternoon... I'll have to check it out a little more. But if "no moderators" means a free-for-all pissing match then I'm not interested.
You know, with great power comes great responsibility. I can swear in my livejournal all I want to... but I usually restrain myself. ^_^
