So anyway…

Don’t worry, this guy has already been nominated for a Darwin Award.

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This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while…

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I found this Flash game/movie thingy rather amusing. When you’re done pestering the guy, hang around his nose a little whie with the cursor…

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WARNING: If you’re bothered by the idea of blood flowing freely, don’t read this.
I think I’ve mentioned here that I’m prone to nosebleeds, but if I haven’t, I’m mentioning it now. Normally my nosebleeds are fairly minor, but now and then I get a really bad one, where the blood practically spurts out of my nostril and runs down my face. And yes, please allow me to say, “YUCK!” Pretty gross.
Well, today while coming back from Zoë’s preschool I reached up to scratch my nose (yes, that’s all, just one of those rub-scratch thing people do) and it triggered a nosebleed. Since I was driving at the time, I found this rather more distressing even than I normally would. I had no tissue handy. I had to pinch my nose shut and tip my head back to keep the blood from running down my face (allow me to again say, “YUCK!”).
Tipping your head back when you’ve got a nosebleed is not a good idea, because the blood runs into your throat. Today was no exception. I nearly gagged as I felt this happening, partly because it’s just damned gross (and have I meantioned, “YUCK!”), but partly because it tickles the soft palette and triggers a gag reflex.
So I managed to grab hold of an icky used napkin that was tucked in the coin tray (allow me to again comment, “YUCK!”) and press that to my nostril while I tipped my head forward a bit more to stop the blood from running down my throat.
Thankfully, the trip to and from preschool is pretty short, and by this time, we were close to home, so I just held on until I was in the driveway, and then I got a wet wipe from the pack we keep in the glove box and shoved that up the bleeding nostril. A wet wipe, by the way, isn’t very absorbent, but at least it kept the blood from gushing all over the place.
When I got upstairs, I got some proper tissue, although the bleeding had mostly stopped by then.
So the moral of the story, if there is one at all, is, “Don’t scratch your nose while driving if you’re prone to nosebleeds.” Or maybe, “YUCK!”

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For a small fee, you can get your very own Imaginary Girlfriend, who will leave you phone messages, send you letters and emails, and may agree to chat with you online.
I know someone who would actually probably appreciate this service. Perhaps I should send him the link…

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It’s no secret that I’m a caffeine addict. I don’t mean that in a humorous way, either. I mean: I’m addicted to caffeine.

Well, this past long weekend, Andrew was off Friday through Tuesday, and I ended up “detoxing” from caffeine addiction. I didn’t really quite intend it that way, but it worked out that way and once I realized I’d gone so long without caffeine, I figured I’d just keep going and detox completely. I do this periodically…
Anyway, as a result I spent most of the weekend with a headache and in a state of considerable irritation. I was just really, really crabby. I don’t think I took it out too much on Andrew or the kids, thankfully. Mostly it got spewed out online, heh. I was my usual opinionated self, only with sharp nails and sharp teeth and a sharp tongue. Nice mental image, isn’t it? *shudder*

Thankfully, the person(s) who bore the brunt of my anger were pretty much all copyright-violating graphics makers and users, and while it’s never nice to be acidly sarcastic and verbally cruel, at least I didn’t lose it with people I care about…. (I hope that makes sense.)

I don’t like myself when I’m like that, though. I get very, very negative, and extremely sarcastic in a very unpleasant and extremely ugly way. I honestly try to avoid doing that. The negative cycle is very destructive to my self-image an to the image I project, and that’s not good for anyone, least of all me.
Next time I detox, I’m going to stay offline, or at least, sit on my hands…

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A mosiac of all the soldiers who have died in Iraq.

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Just got this stuck in my spam filter:
GET YOUR UNIVERSITY DIPLOMA.. chose piece feature parley beebread architect carborundum adhere mckinley curdle preferring dick faraday forgiven paradigm crosswalk accommodate stayed persian elizabeth caspian bottommost dakar infelicity donate astarte meant administer tiny women cloud
Uhm, yeah. I’m convinced. I’ll do business with these people RIGHT AWAY!
Oh, well, At least it’s more interesting than another spam I got, which was entitled:
Message subject

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Ever wonder what icons do while you’re away from the keyboard? (Flash movie.)

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I’ve recently had the misfortune of coming into the knowledge of one of the most unrepentant, clueless “snaggers” I’ve ever seen. If you don’t know what “snagging” is, basically it’s grabbing images off the net to share around illegally. Many times these “snaggers” turn the images they steal into image “tubes” (nozzles, stamps, etc.; basically the picture has the background taken out and it gets redistributed that way, in a form that allows it to be just stamped into an image).

I’ve been the victim of these people in the past. This time I wasn’t, but it came into my knowledge, anyway.

There are groups dedicated to this practice. Mostly email groups, but probably also other groups such as closed boards and such. Yahoo and MSN and Topica are rampant with them. They’re like little nests of rats, IMHO.

When and if anyone dares to point out to them that what they’re doing is illegal and harming the artists whose work they’re hacking up and passing around, they get extremely abusive and argumentative. Their favorite thing is to claim it’s “Fair Use”, but they only read one sentence of the Fair Use clause, not the whole thing.

Sometimes these idiots even try to claim that what they’re doing is “educational” and therefore allowed. Since the never credit the originators of the image, they redistribute without permission, they alter the image without permission, and some of them even sell the tubes they’ve made from “snagged” images, they’re definitely not within the law (more on Fair Use, and copyright in general).

Anyway, someone said that they didn’t understand this snagging/tubing culture, and I have to agree, but I have researched it a little bit and this is what I’ve learned.

From what I can gather, they get all kinds of prestige and praise and status within the group for the quality of their “snagged” images, and for how cleanly they cut out the background to make the tubed image.

I’m told that the positive feedback for quality snagged images/tubes can be very addictive, which is why they fight so friggin hard if someone tries to point out their unethical and illegal behavior.

Sounds a lot like a drug addiction to me, actually. They know (just as addicts do) that it’s wrong, but they need the “high” and they don’t care who they hurt to get it. Anyone who gets between them and their drug is subjected to abuse of all kinds.

Pretty damned sick when you think about it.

Oh, and if you want to write to me to defend the practice of “snagging”, you can keep it to yourself. NOTHING you say will convince me that it’s “okay” or “fine” or anything other than sleazy. I work hard to make images. I spend a great deal of money, time, and energy on it. You hacking up my stuff to “share” with your idiotic friends who can’t understand simple legal statutes cannot be justified to me. I don’t undermine YOUR ability to make a living, nor do I take YOUR work and cut it to bits and pass it around without even bothering to credit you. If you think it’s okay when you do it, you’re seriously self-deluded.

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