Sunday, August 10, 2008

Long Time No Blog

Hi! Atus!
I have been absent from the blogosphere (and don’t we hate that word though?) for a few weeks. Hi! My mother is about to have her hip replaced, after much hemming and hawing around it. But she had emergency ulcer surgery in January, and the lack of ensuing pain finally convinced her that even though she’s 82, quality of life matters. She’s lost thirty pounds, has color back in her cheeks, and received a very fetching new hair do. My father, in the meantime, is not quite in the moment if you know what I mean, and many of you, I’m sure, do. So I will have to do some Dad sitting while Mother is in recovery, because he will have no idea what’s going on.

Also I’ve been dealing with another virus infestation. Or maybe it’s the same infestation as before. I think I have finally removed all traces of Trojan from my PC. I think it’s odd that this virus is called a Trojan. Shouldn’t it be called a Greek? Because it was the Greeks who entered Troy through a trick.

Birthday Q
Had a bunch of people over yesterday in honor of the Wee Bride’s birthday. She is 39. Really. Brats, chicken, beer, and the thick aroma of burning coals! That’s what summer is all about.

Our cat, Rocky, turns one today as well. He doesn’t seem to be aware of that fact.

More signs of the times
From “Apprehension,” a crime column in the East Bay Express: “…Stolen golf clubs are an ongoing trend and stolen license plates… are an emerging trend, and in Walnut Creek on July 23, three Caucasian men were seen dismantling three aluminum benches…. In Martinez on July 25… two Caucasian men were arrested for uprootng a parking meter and stealing it….”

More signs of the times
Willamette Week: “Oregon State Police blame soaring prices at the pump for a sharp increase in how many urine-filled bottles litter crews find on a stretch of Interstate 84.”

OMG! LOL!
From “The Trolls Among Us,” in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, some rules for trolls:

“You look for someone who is full of it, a real blowhard. Then you exploit their insecurities to get an insane amount of drama, laughs and lulz. Rules would be simple: 1. Do whatever it takes to get lulz. 2. Make sure the lulz is widely distributed. This will allow for more lulz to be made. 3. The game is never over until all the lulz have been had.”

One troll, Weeve, explained: “I hack, I ruin, I make piles of money… I make people afraid for their lives…. Trolling is basically Internet eugenics. I want everyone off the Internet. Bloggers are filth. They need to be destroyed. Blogging gives the illusion of participation to a bunch of retards. . . . We need to put these people in the oven!”

Strategies against Obama, so far.
He’s not fat, so you shouldn’t vote for him.

(Really. From the Wall Street Journal: “But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.”)

He’s too popular, therefore you shouldn’t vote for him.

(As the McCain ad says, "He's the biggest celebrity in the world.")

He gives some practical advice for car owners to save on gas mileage, therefore he should be mocked, and you shouldn’t vote for him.

Another sign of the times?
A man in Jacksonville Florida called 911, twice, because a sandwich shop made his sub incorrectly.

Anthrax, anyone?
Recent events made me recall that the anthrax scare had America much jumpier than the events of 9/11. Remember? People were stocking up on duct tape, to seal their windows; people were suspicious of anything powdered.

Anthrax 2
From Wikipedia: “During the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, the band altered its website to provide information about the disease because many people had come there simply by entering anthrax.com in their browsers. Amid what could have become a PR nightmare for the band, Anthrax issued a press release on October 10, 2001, that jokingly mentioned that they were going to change the name of the band to ‘something more friendly, like “Basket Full of Puppies”.’ The band later put a nail in the coffin of all of the name-change rumors that erupted from the press release at the New York Steel 9/11 benefit concert in November 2001, when they took the stage wearing boiler suits with a different word on each one that, when they stood single-file in a specific order, spelled out the sentence ‘WE'RE NOT CHANGING OUR NAME’. “

4 Comments:

Blogger Liberal Seagull said...

I think the etymology is that harmful programs people inadvertently installed were called "Trojan horses," and that gradually got shortened to "Trojans."

It used to be there was also a distinction between a Trojan horse, which was installed by some user action, and a virus, which spread on its own. But the distinction has blurred over time.

6:50 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

“Then you exploit their insecurities to get an insane amount of drama, laughs and lulz. "

What the Hell does "lulz" mean?

7:55 PM  
Blogger Merle Kessler said...

From the Urban Dictionary:
"LULZ is a corruption of L-O-L which stands for laugh out loud. often used by the internet gang of hackers on steroids known as anonymous. anonymous gets big lulz from pulling random pranks but for truly epic lulz anonymous does raids and invasions."
Re: Trojans.
Isn't it strange that Trojan is also synonymous with condom, which is a *protection* against invaders?
This is the kind of thing I think about. Why? I don't know.

9:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Merle Kessler wrote:
I think it’s odd that this virus is called a Trojan. Shouldn’t it be called a Greek? Because it was the Greeks who entered Troy through a trick.

Maybe the Greeks were up to all kinds of tricks; so people had to name the people/location of them to keep them straight! Like Charlie's Angels and the Kleinhardt Gambit, I suppose....

-D.E.

1:38 PM  

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