34 new ones this morning. Jane’s site also got hit. So if you want to be a member, send me a letter via cj at cherryh.com and tell me. But there’ll be no accepted signups by any other route until the holidays are over.
Due to intensive spam traffic, we’re not accepting new members on this site until mid January
by CJ | Dec 20, 2013 | Journal | 58 comments
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Spam = phooey! // actual language unprintable, seems to involve concepts of dubious possibilities and tend toward four letters…
My (very quiet) forum and blog have had at least two attempts, but neither has gotten past the filter gatekeepers or me. (No, I will not approve what’s *obviously* spambot nonsense. No, I will not approve it when investigating shows it’s a known spammer.) Both forum and blog are up to date on upgrades.
Hotmail has been especially bad for sources of spammer attempts. I ~think~ I have WordPress set to flag ~all~ hotmail signups for approval. Not sure yet if I understand properly how to do that, but I’ll figure it out.
OTOH, I’d be happy if real live people want to sign up and post.
So, much commiseration there.
—–
Good News 1:
My new crock pot arrived a few days ago. I’m eager to try it out, but I’m working through a large pot of bean soup, caused by an overly quick pour of beans, resulting in, “Oh. Well, I guess I’m cooking the whole bag then, am I?” LOL. Good pot of bean soup, though. Ro-Tel mild chilis and tomatoes, corn, onions, bell peppers, 2 tbsp. curry powder, 1 tsp. vegetable salt.
I’ve been to the store, so I’m stocked for whatever I fix for my Christmas meal. Likely a roast and veggies in the crock pot, simple and hearty.
Good News 2:
I went by and paid off my new guitar and brought it home. I’m now the proud possessor of a basic Epiphone guitar, to learn and get comfortable with it. Now it’s on to self-teaching, plus to schedule the free intro session with the store’s instructor. With a bit of luck, I may start lessons with said instructor next year, when budget permits. Still to do: A gig bag or case next month.
(Partial payment of taxes wouldn’t budge one way or another, so I paid off the guitar now, rather than let it hang on undone, when I’m bemoaning tax payments later. Oh, the joys of home ownership. Phooey.)
—–
And right now, I hear a squirrel (or other varmint) who’s on my roof or (ack!) in my attic. Sounds like digging or chewing. Frell. … There will be an intermission of some duration while one ascends to the attic and makes noises like a madman to scare off the little blighter(s). … One could well entertain thoughts of selling them to the kif as Dinner. Or some such solution. … One is, however, in general more inclined to live and let live. Exception: If you want to live in my home, you must either pay rent or provide some useful function in exchange or be a significant other. … I am not entirely certain how the cats fit into those criteria, but I much prefer to share my household with them than without. … Squirrels and other creatures, however; see the rules aforesaid.
Yay crockpot! One hopes yours is as productive as mine. For tomorrow night’s herd, I sliced up several pounds of roast and am making bulgogi, Korean marinated beef, with a buckwheat noodle salad, rice, and huge spinach salad on the side. This is our Christmas party equivalent, the Saturday closest to Christmas.
One suggests using wire mesh or steel wool to plug whatever hole the varmints are using for Entry and Egress 101; if that don’t fix ’em, sadly, the next step is something more permanent.
Sounds good, chondrite. Recipes??
(What is a chrondrite? sounds like an astronomical /meteorological thing.)
A ‘chondrite’ is only found in meteorites; it’s one of the tiny spheres that formed in the proto-solar system disc, and eventually accreted into an asteroid. They don’t exist on Earth, or anywhere that had tectonic processes which would destroy them. I collect meteorites, so… 🙂
Okay… Bulgogi is one of those things that is on CJ and Jane’s no-fly list, because it contains lots of garlic and green onion. For 2 pounds of thinly sliced beef, add 1/2 c. shoyu (soy sauce), 1/2c toasted sesame seed oil, 1 bunch green onion, chopped coarsely down to the white part, and 2 tb. ground or minced garlic. I always go heavy on the garlic, and occasionally put in a bit of freshly grated ginger. Mix together, let it soak at least overnight, then dump the whole thing into a large frying pan. Cook until the meat barely shows any pink, and serve over rice. The beef is bite-sized, tangy and tender from the marination.
There are dozens of good recipes for soba (buckwheat noodle) salad. I’m keeping mine simple: a package of soba, boiled until done, cooked edamame (soybeans), shredded carrots, chopped green onions, and bits of fake crab. Mix together with dressing: toasted sesame oil, ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, a bit of pepper flakes. Toss and chill.
Spinach salad is a classic: Chop a package of bacon into bites and fry until crisp. Pull out the bacon and pour off all but 1/4 cup of the drippings. While the pan is still very hot, add a tablespoon of sugar and 1/4-1/2 cup of vinegar; this makes a tangy bacon-y dressing which will sizzle in the pan. Pour over the spinach and toss; the spinach will wilt some, but that’s expected. Add shreds of cheese, the bacon, maybe a bit of onion or a handful of raisins, and serve. This is one recipe you want to keep simple. This will cover an entire pound of spinach.
Ooo, sounds nummy! Thanks!
I should know better — I typed out 3 huge recipes, and WP eated them!
No, I see the original and all the followups. Perhaps they were behind a clog our mistress reamed out?
Oh well… Bulgogi is on CJ and Jane’s no-fly list, because it is full of green onions and garlic. Slice thinly about 2 pounds of beef, into bite-size pieces. Add 1 bunch of green onions, cut coarsely down to the green part, 2 tbs. chopped or ground garlic, 1/2 c. shoyu (soy sauce), and 1/2 c. toasted sesame oil. You can also add a dab of ginger or a few flakes of pepper. mix it together and let it soak overnight. The next day, heat a large frying pan and put everything into it, then cook until the meat is barely pink. Serve over rice. I tend to go heavy on the garlic 🙂
Spinach salad is a classic: cut up a package of bacon into bite size pieces and fry until crisp. Put the bacon on the side and pour off all but 1/4 cup of the drippings. While the pan is till hot, put in a couple of teaspoons of sugar and 1/4-1/2 cup of vinegar. It will bubble and make a hot bacon dressing; pour it over the spinach. You can add in some cheese shreds, a little green onion, some mandarin orange slices or some raisins, croutons — and of course the bacon! Toss it together and serve still warm. This will coat at least a pound of spinach.
OOOoo I love a good spinach salad! The variation I learned has Feta cheese and dried sweetened cranberries with shavings of sweet onion…
There are tons of good recipes for soba (buckwheat noodle) salads out there; I try to keep it simple. Toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, molasses ,all mixed together for the dressing. Boil noodles until done, let cool. I am adding shredded carrots, edamame (boiled soybeans), a bit of green onion, and fake crab bits. Toss together with dressing and chill.
A chondrite is one of the tiny droplets that condensed out of the proto-solar system cloud billions of years ago, and eventually accreted into asteroids. You will never find them on Earth or anyplace else that had tectonic activity, only in meteorites. I collect meteorites, so… 🙂
Third (Shoots, fifth?) time’s the charm… soba (buckwheat noodle) salad has many recipes; I’m trying to keep it simple. Boil noodles until cooked, let cool. I am adding shredded carrots, a hint of green onion, boiled edamame (soybeans) and bits of fake krab. The dressing is toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, ground garlic, molasses blended to taste. Pour dressing over noodles, add extras, toss to mix, chill.
A chondrite is one of the remnants of the proto-solar system, a droplet of condensate billions of years old and only found in asteroids and meteorites. They are never found loose on Earth or anyplace with tectonic activity, as that just blends them into the parent body. I collect meteorites, so… 🙂
I’m copying down that Bulgogi recipe. Mmm, sounds tasty and simple! Thanks, ker Chondrite!
Well, that sucks. How about some magic?
Reindeer eye are gold in Summer, but blue in Winter. More precisely the parts of their eyes, that like cats’, reflect light: “…when a reindeer’s tapetum is blue, 50% less light is reflected out of the eye than when the tapetum is gold. A reindeer with a blue tapetum sees less clearly than one with a gold tapetum, but its eyes are 1,000 times more sensitive to light.” http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-reindeer-eyes-change-christmas-20131220,0,1233478.story
Really, really neat!
It has, officially, started to snow in Spokane, really snow, instead of spit. The evergreens are getting coated and a winter blanket will help protect the plants.
Raining pretty good here. That’s actually good news now.
Last week we got a little rain after a week or two of solid freeze. But it came on top of an inch of thawed mud over a still frozen, i.e. impervious, base. Consequently, bring out in my UCut lot last weekend was downright nasty, “greasy”, well churned mud that was like walking in thick dry ocean beach sand. Now, even wetter, it is thawed through and the water is percolating down, and the mud is much dryer and firmer. Hooray!
Not “bring”, next letter over, “being”! 🙁
Freezing rain here in the Okies. 80,000 people (so far) w/o power just south of T-town. I think it’s more like the Bixby & BA area.
I HATES freezing rain.
It started raining last night, not too bad. Then today came the heavy rains, now my basement walls are weeping from all of the groundwater pressing through the cinder blocks. We had severe thunderstorm warnings at 9:45 PM EST, and at 10:06 PM, the gust front blew through West Central Ohio. I measured the gusts at 73.8 MPH at my house – that’s almost Category I hurricane. I lost power briefly, but no damage that I’ve seen. I did find someone’s patio umbrella in the street in front of my house, so I dragged it up and leaned it against my garage door. Hopefully, the owners will come claim it. Looks like the storms are moving off to the east fairly quickly. The Great Miami River is at about 12 feet, flood stage is at 10, and it probably won’t crest until either Tuesday or Wednesday. The city has a flood dike on the south end of town, with several transfer pumps to push the water back into the river, but as with any artificial riverbank, the problem gets shoved downstream. One of my friends in Tennessee escaped a tornado warning. There are tornado warnings still in Eastern Ohio, though.
Recommendation: Write that out “CJ at cherryh dot com”. Humans will interpret it OK, most robots won’t recognize it.
You’re right, of course. I tend to forget. Then curse the bots.
I’d tried to post earlier, but apparently it’s sitting in queue for approval. Or it simply didn’t care for my nattering on. 😀
Don’t know why, but it was held in queue. I have liberated your letter, BCS. 😉
Thanks, ker CJ.
OT: I had my own problems with fish this morning – sharks at the beach!
I walked down to the beach near where I live Friday morning, and just as I was thinking that it was a perfect day for a swim, hot, with a mild breeze, and calm sea, and that I’d come down and swim as soon as I did some shopping – the shark siren sounded, and they hoisted shark warning flags. There have been a few shark attacks on this beach, the last in 2011, so there is an efficient system in place, especially during the tourist season.
It was good to see that nobody panicked. Everyone got out of the water promptly, but they were walking not running. A few people remained knee-deep in the surf until a lifeguard walked over and told them they needed to come out completely. Sharks can attack in much shallower water than you might think, as little as three feet.
In a few minutes two Great White sharks were clearly visible, swimming close to the beach. They were hovering around, swimming very slowly parallel to the beach, only about 20-30 yards from the water’s edge.
I went back in the afternoon and the coast was (literally) clear again. Green shark flags were flying to show that the bay was clear of sharks, and plenty of people were swimming in the sea again, so I went for a swim myself. The risk is very small when you understand it and deal with it in a reasonable way.
Mmm, I fear I’d be standing on the shore watching people who knew the breed better frolic in the water. I’m comfortable walking among horses and cattle, sheep, goats, and even camels and elephants in controlled circumstances; and I regularly cleaned a piranha tank barehanded [though warily] but sharks are outside my experience.
It depends a lot on local conditions. There are shark spotters on a hillside overlooking the bay, and if visibility is good then sharks can easily be seen at a great distance. It all depends how calm the sea is, and also on cloud cover. In this case, they would have actually watched the sharks leaving the bay before giving the all clear, and they would be able to see them if they came back again.
If the sea was rougher or if there were cloud shadows moving rapidly over the sea, I wouldn’t have gone in, because then it’s more difficult to spot them. The shark spotting system also has a status for ‘unknown’.
In general, sharks prefer to eat seals and fish, not human beings. Most shark attacks happen when there are schools of fish or seals close by, which the sharks are really hunting.
Considering the number of people who swim around the coast, and the number of sharks, shark attacks are actually very, very rare indeed.
They say there’s a far greater chance of being hit by a car when crossing the road – and in this area, given the busy main road near the beach, that jaywalking is a way of life here, I’m sure that’s true!
The other day a German family who were waiting patiently to cross the road at a traffic light, looked highly shocked when I crossed against the light, and a few yards away from the crossing. But the road was clear enough to cross! Around here we believe in common sense rather than blindly following rules.
There are certainly different attitudes to risk in different countries. By our standards, America and Europe have a highly over-cautious and excessively rule-based attitude to safety. This seems to have become more pronounced in recent decades.
I think it’s mostly due to the legal systems. If anyone gets hurt in the US or Europe, there is a feeling that someone else must be to blame, someone must be sued, and someone must pay high damages. The legal system here doesn’t encourage that. It’s costly to sue, and any damages awarded will be relatively small, so it’s usually not worth while.
In peripheral towns and small towns in the American West, jaywalking (crossing outside the light) is more common, where the streets are clear for a visible block…but when it’s city, people tend to stick to the lights. Though pedestrians in Spokane not only have the right of way, they’re aggressive about it [silly people], the fact that nobody’s expecting foot traffic between lights makes it something I do with great caution, as when I’m out walking and have to cross where there’s no light at all. We do have a bad problem on the central north-south avenue, Division: we have 4 and occasionally 5 lanes of traffic, and a few zones where there are small bars and a bridge, which is the only way to get across the river for several blocks. That street and 2nd Street are the bad ones for people crossing in the dark or bad weather and not always with the lights. Most of our pedestrian accidents are at twilight, which comes right around 4 pm in the winter… I think we have more pedestrian accidents here in Spokane than I recall in Oklahoma City, but then, Oklahomans don’t walk as much: an Oklahoman is somebody who, at a strip mall (a city block-long L-shaped array of shops all around a vast parking lot), will shop in an air conditioned store, go get his air conditioned car and move it thirty feet down to the next air-conditioned store, and keep doing it 3-4 times during his shopping excursion.
I occasionally jaywalk on the main artery near my house, because crosswalks are generally more than a quarter mile apart, and there’s about a 50% chance oncoming traffic will ignore the pedestrian right of way. That being said, I consider it my responsibility if I jaywalk to be mindful and get out of the way of oncoming traffic.
Depends on the local conditions really. In Oregon, if I was preparing to jaywalk, on a very long block with massive visibility, and a single car came along….the car would stop, even though I was nowhere near a crosswalk and was fully prepared to wait for them to go by. So I started going to the crosswalk just to keep from being selfish. In Burlington, VT there’s a downtown crosswalk which is actually more dangerous to use than jaywalking, because of the trees and tourist signs blocking line of sight, so I always crossed halfway up the block, because that was the only place you could see cars and they could see you. IN NYC, on the other hand, you were taking your life in your hands if you tried to jaywalk at any time other than 8am on a Sunday morning. 🙂
megawe, are you in Burlington? I used to live there when I went to the University of Vermont and it is my favorite US city to live in. I think the (small city) size is perfect!
Jay-walking is perfectly normal in Boston and I agree with mrgawe above that there are places where it feels much safer to cross in the middle of the street and not at the official corner. Esp. on a one way street, you can predict the traffic flow much better in the middle than at a corner where a car could suddenly turn onto the street with a “right on red” (I.e. being legally allowed to turn even with a stop light) just as one is stepping into the street to cross.
New England has narrower streets in general than elsewhere in the US, apparently, which may functionally account for the preference for jaywalking… that and a general hurried ness of culture. We always want to get some place faster than we are.
Raesan- lived in Burlington for eight yrs…well, actually Charlotte (which is pronounced shar-LOTTE as I was informed within a week of moving there). A very nice small city indeed, and vastly superior to Worcester MA which is where I’d lived previously. Apologies to any Worcesterites who might be reading, but when I have to watch out for the crazy guy with the machete when I go for my afternoon walk, well, that kind of lowers the tone for me…
RSA? Capetown? Durban?
WA as well if we’re talking Indian Ocean.
Cape Town 🙂
https://www.google.com/search?q=cape+town&tbm=isch
Talking about spam and phones, I came across this article. Long story short, Filipino telemarketers are using recorded pitches to telemarket into the US (avoiding Do Not Call laws). The recordings have no accent–or pity. They cannot possibly be interrupted. The system is so good (for some satanic definition of “good”) one operator can handle more than one call at a time. The operators are just listening for catch-phrases and pushing buttons to start bits of monologue. (Like a Choose Your Adventure book.) And probably laughing at people trying to get a word in edgewise.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/almost-human-the-surreal-cyborg-future-of-telemarketing/282537/
I don’t even try to get a word in edgewise. Hanging up the phone is the only response they get from me. If it’s a number I don’t recognize, I just pick the phone up, then hang it up.
The word ‘hello’ seems to trigger some of these pests. If I suspect a yak, I just lay the phone down until it beeps to be hung up. We also know a few origins for calls we don’t want, and just ignore those.
In general, I don’t talk on the phone. I use it for business with New York, I use it for communication with my brother, who lives 2000 miles away, and to make appointments to meet, even with friends, and Jane’s the same. Exceptions where we talk instead of meeting are quite rare, and involve people who live too far to reach otherwise. Ones who live in town, I figure, hey, if you’ve got good gossip, you’re worth meeting for lunch.
Voice-activated, yeah.
I’ve gotten into the habit of not saying anything for a second or so, and if no one says anythign, I may whistle into the phone to see if it activates. This isn’t helped by the front door system at my building using the phone to request remote-opening.
I suspect they aren’t using voice recognition, but just a simple pass-band filter. Any signal between, say, 300-1000Hz will probably set them off.
Hee — DH had a few clients that got routed directly to DEVNULL, and programmed the answering machine to say “DON’T PICK UP THE PHONE”. You had to be a real poop to get that treatment.
We have a very aggressive charity spammer (Kidney Foundation) who calls every couple of days; we let the answering machine catch that one as well. Just because you might be exempt for the Do Not Call list, folks, doesn’t mean we want to hear from you constantly. That treatment makes me less inclined to support you, not more.
I’ve stopped picking up my phone. Let the answerer listen; strangely, they almost never talk to it. But then the question arises, why do I even keep the landline at $300/yr? A fax or two a year? Damn expensive faxes. Ham. VOIP. Need to look into those more.
Any difficulty registering your pre-paids for reverse-911 and such?
Haven’t even tried. We’ll use them to call 911 if we’re on the road and see something the Patrol needs to check. I’m not even sure our landline has reverse-911. Our general alarm system is—if you hear choppers go over, lock the doors, just in case.
I’ve been trying to post the last of teh 3 recipes and none of them have come through. Please forgive me, CJ, if I have irredeemably stuffed your spam filter 🙂
There are hundreds of recipes for soba (buckwheat noodle) salad; I’m trying to keep mine simple. Boil soba until done. I’m adding boiled edamame (soybeans), shredded carrots, fake krab, and a bit of green onion. The dressing is toasted sesame oil, garlic, ginger, rice wine vinegar, a bit of molasses, shaken together. Pour the dressing over the salad, toss and chill.
BTW, a chondrite is a droplet of the primal solar proto-disc. They are only found in meteorites and asteroids, because the tectonics of Earth and other planets just recycle them. I collect meteorites, so… 🙂
Sounds very good! — Yes, we have no molasses. But I ought to get some next trip or two. Not sure if I have any rice wine vinegar. Got apple cider vinegar, but rice wine vinegar suits the recipe better. Might have some. (Reminds me to get sushi supplies again and try to make some. Alas, I’ve never had sushi, though California rolls once, I think.)
Got it unstuffed, Chondrite. I can’t figure what touched off the spam filter. Sorry you had so much trouble!
Oh, crap. I just saw how I polluted this thread. Vast apologies, and please delete anything you find to be excessive.
Wanted to buy a standalone negative scanner. One of those that writes to an SD card. Anyone use one? I need to find negatives and want to scan them when I do. I have 30 year oldworldcon photos and dance photos from the same time period that I want to share.
I don’t know, Martha. Amazon has some decent deals, and you get to return it within 90 days if it doesn’t work. This one says it will. http://www.amazon.com/DBTech-35mm-Slide-Negative-Scanner/dp/B007VDN1PA/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1387754297&sr=1-1&keywords=negative+scanner
I favor Epson and Canon and Panasonic for image-handling, but heck, if you can return it, some of these less expensive ones might do right well, just maybe might not last so long; and computer stuff obsolesces before it wears out. You’ll want about 300 DPI for most applications, I’d think.
5 Mpixels for a slide scanner is something less than 2000 dpi (OK, 1800 dpi). OTOH, my Minolta Dimage II scanner (from many years ago) is/was 2700 dpi, for about 11 Mpixels. I’m not sure how big a print you could get starting at 2000 dpi – maybe 10″ by 15″ if you think 200 dpi is ok for a print. — That might be OK, actually, and even allow for some cropping.
OK, I just read all the questions and some of the reviews… I’m a little dubious, but for $20 (+shipping?) it probably worth a try. Might be easier than making sure my SCSI chain works with my old scanner 🙂
Here’s the metric I use: 300 dpi (90,000 pixels/sq.in.), old school laser printer or Postscript; 200 dpi (40,000 pixels/sq.in.), standard fax quality (jaggy, not so good); 100 dpi (39.37 dots per cm), old school text, decent for text (10,0000 pixels/sq.in.), actually 96 or 72 dpi.
Take away: it takes a boatload of pixels to get a decent image from a 24mm x 36mm image. No, no, no! Wait, wait wait! It’s 35mm! Um…. The 35mm is the 24mm dimension with enough room for sprocket holes. Oh….
See Wikipedia 135 film. (So I don’t put two links in one message.)
If you shop at Costco, they have this, which should be good for their normal unlimited return policy:
http://www.costco.com/Pacific-Image-CS3600-35MM-Film-and-Slide-Digital-Scanner.product.100080990.html
My personal problem is that my father, in the last few senile years of his life, stored his slides improperly, and they’re all heat-browned. I don’t think they’re recoverable. Sigh: treasure what you have; forget what you don’t.
Oh, we’re fine, Chondrite. I’m still trying to puzzle out what the spam filter took exception to in the noodles!