I should’ve installed the anti-spam plug-in Akismet a long time ago. I activated it today and it shows I’ve got 396 comments identified as spam dating all the way back to October 2005! I guess these are ones that Wordpress’s default comment spam tools have missed.
We don’t get snow here in the Bay Area - frost is all we get when it becomes cold - like last Sunday morning.
Later in the day, we had a little Christmas get-together with our friends from our sons’ school.
The dads……………………………….. the moms.
And the kids.
All throughout the week, I’ve been getting a new kind of comment spam. It’s not the kind that advertises the latest online casinos, or pushes pills or anything like that. Rather, it links to legitimate sites that are quite popular - but nothing else. The aim seems to get bloggers to blacklist these legit sites in some sort of retaliatory gesture. Weird.
This simple trick to conserve an iBook or PowerBook’s battery power turns out to be good for other purposes, like making things more readable in direct sunlight. By applying this hint, the screen’s colors get “inverted,” not unlike a negative. I found this to be quite useful when surfing in bed at night. Since the large white areas on my screen become black and the type becomes white, there is less luminous glow. It makes for easier reading in the dark and it becomes less of a bother to my wife, who is a light sleeper.
We saw “The Chronicles of Narnia” on opening day. I liked it. The Emmy Award-winning animated adaptation from the ’70s had more of an emotional impact on me, however. The book, even more so. This review sums up what I feel about the movie. Prior to watching “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,” I selectively read negative reviews only, perhaps to allow the movie to prove them wrong. But their criticisms were mostly fair and on-point. I don’t understand those writers, however, who object to the use of a lion (in the book and movie) as a symbol for Christ. They’re just plain clueless.
On Saturday evening we headed to Dublin for a party at a friend’s house. It was a great get-together complete with a hilarious White Elephant gift exchange. At one point in the party I braved the chilly air with the smokers outside (although I’m not one myself). Our conversation turned to Christianity somehow. One of our long-time friends mentioned how most of her family are followers of Christ and how they fervently pray for her. Although they don’t condone her homosexual lifestyle, they are non-judgmental towards her and love her dearly. She says she herself is a believer in Christ. She says she acknowledges what the Bible says about her lifestyle but she has a hard time letting go, especially of her current relationship.
Quite a frank admission.
The narrator in the opening animation of the new arts and culture website Canvas.ph says he was “born and raised in Hawaii.” His distinct Manileño accent betrays him though. But I suppose this gaffe is easily forgiven since we island folk share so much in common. When the boys and I ate at Ohana Hawaiian BBQ for the first time last week, I noticed most of the staff were pinoy. I guess they lend some semblance of authenticity. Most of the patrons were also pinoy. Undoubtedly, entrées such as Spam Musubi and Grilled Spam Saimin have something to do with this.
Eric Idle, how you like me now?
A spammer attempts to rationalize his actions in this comment spam I just received:
What I’m talking about is interjecting ads within the aggegated (sic) content of the community blog entries. Sort of like the way commercials are added to your favorite TV shows. The individual blog entries is (sic) the community’s “show” and the added advertising goes towards paying for the “show”
Well, if that’s the case, then show me the money!
Update: Ok, should’ve read that more carefully. Did a Google search and apparently the spammer took a comment from someone else’s blog entry and used it here.
Should’ve installed MT-Blacklist sooner. I’ll see how well it does blocking spam comments. If it ain’t good enough, I’d have to change the name of my comments file (as suggested here).
Update: Hey, it works:
And combined with today’s spam crackdown, things are looking much brighter.