Happy Mew Years Rockin' EschaKitteh Eve!

... soon to become a permanent feature of this here blog. Look at all the cats we loved in 2015!

Bob

Stella

Streak O'Lean

Forward To The Past

It's the holidays.

Blog business is slow, right?

Well, I'll be downstairs, on the next thread that has less than 200 comments.
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Merry Xbox

... and Thank You  to Lil Red and Bob for the very kind gift of the Xbox Cheer I am consuming in the photo, above. They were also so kind as to be replacing the rear tire on Wanda, unbeknownst to them.

And Soprano dropped off some awesome homemade cookies for me (and I actually wasn't here,  as opposed to hiding out from a certain ex-GF who loves to show up unannounced this time of year... no visits that I know of, thusfar!). Between the delicious cookies and Lil Red's delectable New Mexican chocolates, my sweet tooth is well-placated. Thank you again, folx. Y'all are too awesome for words.

Bless you, each and every one, and I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.
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A Week, Post-Eschaton

And feeling fine.

I miss a lot of folks. And some have e-mailed or otherwise stayed in touch, but I can see in my stats that I'm losing touch with dozens of folks, which I hate. Still, I say FUCK ECHO with a MILLION PORCUPINE PENISES.
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Die, Echo, Die.

For those who can still find the catblog.

UPDATE: Just saw this on the local news. This is I-24 @ Blue Hole Rd., minutes ago. Yes, that's a house that washed off its foundation, and ended up in the middle of I-24.

UPDATE II: Sadly, one person drowned at this scene. They're saying everyone else was rescued.

UPDATE III: Another photo, same location, 7:45 p.m., CDT. 5.93" of rain at the Nashville Airport, not far from here. 2nd-most rain ever recorded in a 24-hour period.

UPDATE IV: No fatalities at this location. The one death (drowning) was at I-24 and Bell Road, closer to town. Reportedly, these folks were trapped on the interstate by road closures ahead.
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bensonmum

For the uninitated, here's the quick and easy way to get trolls out of your life, dear Atriot. Follow these steps in order, skipping only the ones you have already installed:

• Install Firefox 3.5.5 on yer PC (most Mac users report this is working for them, as well)
• Install the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox
• Install the bensonmum script for Greasemonkey
• If you were already using Greasemonkey, and using the "killfile" script, disable it for now. bensonmum NOW incorporates killfile functionality, so chances are you won't want to go back to killfile. But you can keep it if you like, but DO be sure to disable it.

FAQ

WHAT DOES IT DO?

It hides comments from anyone not using a Gravatar. Don't worry -- you can still see those comments if you hover over the "view" link provided next to that non-Gravatar-using-person's nym. If that person's NOT a troll, you can even add them to your "friendlies" list (the "Chosen" list in bensonmum -- the "Damned" list contains all the bad guys you've killfiled) by clicking on the "view" link!

HOW DOES THAT HELP ME?

Disruptive trolls are notorious non-users of Gravatar -- getting Gravatars impedes their ability to quickly morph names, steal names and all the lovable antics trolls are known to use. Because of the way bensonmum authenticates users, trolls can change names all they like -- but they'll stay blocked if you've blocked them, before (or left them blocked by dint of not having a Gravatar).

WON'T TROLLS JUST GET GRAVATARS?

Sure, but by clicking on bensonmum's "hide" link for those users, you can killfile the poor bastards, and then they'll have to go through the process of getting another e-mail account, getting a new Gravatar, etc. before you ever see their comments again. They'll get bored with all the work they have to do, soon enough (in fact, trolling is WAY down, less than 24 hours after the first version was put in the field!).

What we've observed in the first week of bensonmum's deployment is more of the same ol' antics (such as the several comments starting from here, on down). Again, since these geniuses are generally not bothering to get Gravatars, bensonmum hides their spoor by default. In other words, while modern science has given us color-safe bleach, it has failed to give us Troll Brightener, to date. :)

If you can't scroll past childish taunts like this, maybe the Internet is not the place for you.

WHAT WILL IT DO IN THE FUTURE?

I'll let you know. It's just 24 hours old, and it already does everything *I* need it to do, right now. :)

WHAT IF I DON'T LIKE IT?

You can turn off scripts easier than Bob (and back on again, if you like). You can also use another browser. Still, you'd be nearly insane not to like it and/or use it when infestation levels are high.

I HATE THAT IT PUTS YOU AT THE BOTTOM OF THE COMMENTS!

Instead of using the yellow bar at the bottom to refresh the page, right-click and use the "Reload" command from the context menu, and you'll end up roughly where you left off (thanks to DWD for discovering this!).

WHO DID IT?

dirk gently, world-famous troll tormenter and Master Coder! THANK YOU, KIND SIR!

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HUMOROUS UPDATE: One of the cipherin' geniuses is trying to convince those very few still listening to The Ignored that he's discovered TEH SEEKRIT CODE! He's gonna bust bensonmum any minute now -- in fact, he already has! :lol: See, by stealing my nym and my public e-mail address (posted plainly at the top of this very site), he's got everyone fooled into thinking he is me!

He seems to have no problem coming up with the right MD5 hash, given the e-mail address (well, duh); let's see him do it the other way round:

08a1fc75ac535c140101e75651fa8a64

What's the e-mail address for THAT, Prof. Puddingless?
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FINAL: Gnashvegan Atriots' Meatspace Collusion

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BE THERE!
Atriots Welcome, as well as all
Political Lookie-Loos and Lurkers
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Good People
Good Food
Good Beer
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What More Do You Need? Here's Your Invitation!
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(Stalkers and disrespectful smart-asses who can't hold their liquor, do everyone a favor -- please stay home... I don't know any poor dentists -- you?)

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