Dullroar

This weekend the fiancee and I moved in together. It was like doing a double move in one day, since we had two apartments' worth of stuff being moved into one (thankfully larger) place. We rented a big UHaul, which went pretty well except for the moment I almost ran over a Jeep Cherokee (picture one very alarmed looking woman in her early 40s), and the moment when I realized that they charge per mile for these things. I swear the web site didn't mention that, or if it did, it was in the fine print.

The next morning when I was returning the truck, I happened to glance at the dashboard, and I noticed two stickers (see the above crappy camera phone image). One said "curious?" and the other had a picture of a dopey looking cat. Obviously, this was meant to evoke the "curiosity killed the cat" idea. But why? And will asking the question bring about my untimely demise? The answer to both questions is "I don't know."

Posted by Andy at 10:28 AM | Permalink

Comment spam hasn't happened much on this blog, so I've been hand-deleting the spams and banning the IP addresses of the machines issuing the spam. (Not that these machines are owned by the spammers themselves - they're probably random PCs infected by a virus, but that doesn't mean they won't send more spam if allowed.) Then last night, 12 new comment spams appeared. That's way too much to clean up by hand, especially with Movable Type's comment administration workflow, which requires me to ban each IP address and remove each spam individually.

That's what finally convinced me to install the SCode plugin (which was written by James Seng). When you post comments now, you'll also have to input a captcha-style security code. I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience, but it was either this, or turn off comments (and life without comments would suck).

Please, give the new comment posting system a try and drop me a line if there are any problems. My email address is andy (curly 'a' thing) dullroar.org. (Yes, I know what an @ is, but I don't want to make things too easy for spammers that take email addresses off of web pages. Also, on a random note, do you know how tough it is to find information about @? You can't just google for it, believe me.)

Posted by Andy at 08:05 AM | Permalink

Get 'em while they're hot (the new season is just around the corner!). Here's the osage hedge ball FAQ

Posted by Andy at 11:56 PM | Permalink

So now that my apartment's been rented (huge sigh of relief), life can return to normal. I mean, except for the packing and moving and unpacking and cleaning, of course. We've all been through it.

But I did just want to send a shout out to my man, Donald Trump. No, he didn't come down in person to help me out. But last month I did watch the episode of The Apprentice in which the two teams had to find tenants for a couple apartments. I'm sure it helped me somehow, even if I can't figure out exactly how and I thought the episode was pretty boring. The very first season of Survivor was great, but since then, I haven't been able to get interested in any other reality tv show.

By the way, it's been a few months since I've posted a picture of a Pittsburgh mural. Rest assured, more murals will be forthcoming. It's just been a very hectic couple months here, and the hobbies have had to take a back seat.

Posted by Andy at 11:13 AM | Permalink

The fiancee and I are in the process of getting out of our leases so we can move into a place large enough for both of us. Anyone need an apartment in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill? Anyone?

More details about my apartment can be found on Craigslist.

Posted by Andy at 01:20 PM | Permalink

I'm pleased to report that my girlfriend is no longer my girlfriend. She's now my fiancee! (See, I had y'all thinking this was bad news, but it's anything but.)

Posted by Andy at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here it is the first day of May, and that (plus all the lead in the D.C. water I drank last weekend) made me curious about the etymology of the term "mayday". As this ARRL page states, "mayday" has nothing to do with the month. Instead it probably originated as a mispronunciation of the French word "m'aidez," which means "help me."

Posted by Andy at 10:46 AM | Permalink

Click on the image for more criticism.

Posted by Andy at 10:26 AM | Permalink