Call me silly, but doesn’t this remind you of something? Like, maybe a female pelvis? With a strategically placed button that, when pressed, emits an apple- and cinnamon-scented burst of olfactory delight?
Category: Crankypantsing
Again
It would be nice if we didn’t have another tornado warning at 1:00am. Ugh.
Also, I’m not sure how my television ended up on the channel it’s on, but I’d like to state, for the record, that nobody loves Raymond.
Thar She Blows!
That red dot below Indianapolis is me. I’m really hoping that the tornado watch we’re under doesn’t turn into a tornado warning (counties northeast of us are under one right now). And if it does, I hope that IU’s emergency warning system is working properly, because I can barely hear the storm sirens from my bedroom. They aren’t loud enough to actually wake me up, but an email notification should.
I really, really, really hate tornado season.
Crankypants, Ahoy!
As I was looking at my referrer stats today, I noticed some suspicious traffic from a pet website. I visited the site and looked around and found that they were using one of my photos. Most of my images are Creative Commons licensed for non-commercial use, but this was a commercial website. I contacted them and explained that as their website was clearly commercial (they had a shopping cart and were selling products, for crying out loud; it was not at all ambiguous), their use of my image was in violation of my license.
I got a message back from them saying that, while they’d removed my image, they had not violated my license, as they weren’t selling products with my image on them. Um, yeah, that would be a flagrant violation of my license, but that’s not the only way to define commercial use. Placing my image anywhere on their commercial website is, you know, commercial use, as it’s meant to drive traffic and ultimately garner sales.
The worst part of it, though, was that they’d chosen a terrible photo. If you’re going to steal something, at least make sure you steal something nice.
Making Lemonade
Some assberet stole some of the flower pots off my patio late last night. That would have been annoying enough, but he also dumped the dirt out of them and made an unholy mess. There are piles of dirt everywhere. One of the plants had become pot-bound though, and the dirt came out in one large chunk, complete with a tracery of roots around the outer edges. It’s kind of pretty.
The thief pretty much has to be someone from this apartment complex, because my patio can’t be seen from the street or sidewalk. The only people who would have known there were flower pots there would have been people who live here, because the only foot traffic along the back of the buildings is from residents walking their dogs. Nice to know that one of my neighbors is not only a thief but a slob, too. The least he could have done was dump the dirt under the tree or in the thicket, instead of throwing it all over my patio.
A Jar of Glass
DST is still kicking my ass. I could not stay awake at work this afternoon. And this evening, as I was scanning more negatives, I felt like I had a wool blanket stuffed in my head. I think I’m going to give up and go to bed.
Packaging Rage
I hate, hate, hate blister packs. I usually try to avoid them, but sometimes that’s not possible. I spent 30 minutes removing my allergy meds and putting them in a bottle. And then I got pissed off all over again at the mountain of packaging left behind. What a waste!
Survivor WTFBBQ
It’s 30 minutes until Survivor starts, and I’m already cranky as hell thinking about having to watch Boston Rob and Russell yet AGAIN. Enough already with Mr. Smarmy and Mr. Asshole! Rob needs to find another job besides being the world’s most repulsive reality show contestant. And if I have to sit through another season of watching to Russell whine and cry about how he deserved to win, I might have to poke out my eyes with sporks. The guy lost twice, which is a pretty good indication that he did not, in fact, deserve to win.
Bloody Weather
We did not lose power! Yay for that. Comcast crapped out early yesterday evening and didn’t come back up until this afternoon, so I was without cable, Internet access, and house phone for the night. That’s only a minor annoyance, though. As long as the electricity is on, I’m happy!
I’d say that we got somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 inch of ice at my house, judging by the accumulation on my car. So not so bad. Definitely not as serious as conditions a little west of us. I’m guessing that being on the southern edge of the ice band was to our benefit.
The only casualty was the seal on my rear car doors. I thought I’d better clear off the car and let it run today, because it would only be more difficult if I left it until tomorrow, when the temperature is supposed to be down around 5F. The only problem was getting into the car, as the doors and door handles were completely iced shut. I finally managed to get one of the rear doors open, but in doing so, the seal popped off. Then, when I tried opening the opposite door from the inside, that seal popped off, too. The driver’s side door is fine, though, and I didn’t bother with the front passenger side door. Hopefully the rear door seals aren’t significantly damaged. Hrmf! But at least it’s running, and I’ll be able to get to work tomorrow.
I think I’m officially OVER this winter. As far as I’m concerned, it can go die in a fire. A toasty, warm, blazing fire.
Monty Python & The Holy Grail – Bloody Weather
iTunes Shenanigans
A couple of months ago, I installed iTunes on my laptop. I should have known better, because the last time I did that, it completely corrupted my operating system to the point that Windows could not load. I had to wipe the hard disk and reinstall Windows from scratch. You can imagine how happy that made me.
So I knew better. But I had a handful of songs in AAC format that I’d bought from iTunes that I wanted to convert to mp3. Installing iTunes temporarily seemed to be the easiest solution. I did, and it worked fine, and I immediately uninstalled it. Everything seemed to be functioning properly, so I thought I was in the clear.
Today I tried to rip some CDs and found that my computer couldn’t access music CDs–it kept telling me the drive was empty. Data CDs worked fine, so it wasn’t the drive itself. I was NOT AMUSED. And then I remembered my little adventure into iTunesland. And, more important, I looked through my recently installed programs and that was the only thing I’d changed since the last time I’d (successfully!) ripped a CD. Therefore I was 100% positive that iTunes had caused the problem, but I didn’t know how to fix it. The only thing I could think of was that maybe something didn’t uninstall properly, so I re-installed iTunes, rebooted, re-uninstalled iTunes, and rebooted again. Et voila, everything was back to working properly.
Hrmf.
Would someone please remind me of this if I EVER consider installing iTunes again? Because if I do, I’m sure no good will come of it.
red paper boat 