Month: January 2007

Meta

Image Access

Shelly

Those of you who use Bloglines or an RSS feed, or who access my site or blog in some remote way, may have experienced some weirdness yesterday and this morning. I’ve been trying to work around 1) a problem with porn spam comments in Coppermine and 2) MySpace users sucking my bandwidth (bad!). Problem 1 was fixed, with just a minor glitch, yesterday.

As for Door Number 2, I tried directly editing my htaccess file, but that didn’t seem to work. My host provides a way to edit htaccess in their control panel, and that seemed to work too well, because it blocked image linking by sites like Google, which I don’t want to do. I think I’ve got it sorted out, now, but I will have to add link protection exceptions manually. I’ve added Google Images and Bloglines, but there may be other aggregators that I’ve missed. So, if you are suddenly unable to see images, please let me know, so I can fix the problem.

Crankypantsing, Meta

Gallery Glitch

Shelly

I had some assberet try to leave a bunch of porn spam comments on my gallery earlier today.  I fixed the problem, but got a little overzealous and managed to block access to the general public.  Oops!  If you tried to click on artwork earlier today, and were given a crazy log-in screen, that’s why. Everything should be back to normal now.

As you were, comrades!

Crankypantsing, Photography

Mr. Upstairs Update

Shelly

L007

I’m happy to report that Mr. Upstairs has finally achieved the next level on his favorite video game. Well, to be truthful, I’m not exactly happy to report it. It’s more like the new music accompanying this level of the game is a welcome change from the days-on-end drone of the music from the previous level. At last! Something a little different!

I can also report that he has thus far kept his New Year’s resolution to exercise daily. He’s up to 20 minutes a day on the treadmill, and has been known on occasion to break into a slow–and blessedly brief–jog. Unfortunately, the treadmill is in the second bedroom, above my studio, which is where my computer lives. Usually, I’m on the computer at about the same time the treadmill revs up. The sound of the sky falling can be a little distracting.

I still can’t figure out if he’s gainfully employed outside the house. His schedule is:

  • 5am-9am News television (I’ve yet to hear him watch anything but CNN or C-SPAN)
  • 9am-2pm All’s quiet (he either leaves or sleeps)
  • 2pm-6pm AM talk radio (o ick, and it’s ridiculously loud)
  • 7pm-8pm Plays electronic keyboard (currently he’s fond of faux harpsichord ditties)
  • 8pm-9pm Exercises (including the aforementioned treadmilling, but also something involving jumping up and down on the living room floor)
  • 9pm-4am Video Game-O-Rama bay-BEE!1!!!

So, you can see why I’m perplexed. Either he doesn’t sleep, or he doesn’t work. Either way, it’s only for five hours, and that ain’t natural!

Another thing that perplexes me is that I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no carpet in his apartment. At least, not in the living room and dining room. I not only hear his footsteps loud and clear, but when he wears shoes, I can hear them clattering on an obviously bare floor. The lack of carpet surely contributes to the conduction of noise to my apartment. In fact, it seems to amplify it. (Addendum: I asked my across-the-hall neighbor, who works for the property management company, and she said there is carpet upstairs. Very odd.)

L004
Photos: Duck in Birdbath [This Mr. Upstairs Update has nothing whatsoever to do with ducks.]

Art, Drawings

Planter

Shelly

Stonehenge Journal: Planter
Planter
Prismacolor on 90lb Stonehenge paper
7 1/2 x 5 5/8 inches

The color and contrast on these are coming out wonky. The color is too garish, and the shadows are hard and shiny looking. The highlights are too harsh, as well. The problem is that my scanner is picking up under-layers of pigment. Hrmf. I may have to try photographing instead of scanning. Honestly, there is no pink or lime green in this drawing! I’ve fiddled with it a bit in Photoshop, but I’m ready to give up for the night.