Year: 2002

Categories
Weblogging

Australia Day

I had a lot of fun with this today. The color scheme (Australian flag colors), the Australian terms (try and find a posting with over 20 and 25 comments attached to see all of them), but most importantly, introducing you, my weblog reader, to the Australian Delegation.

As I introduced my friends from Australia, I realized that if for no other reason, I weblog because of the people I meet. They increase my reach, they enrich my life, and they expand my horizens.

And they now owe me a case of Tim Tams!

G’day mate.

Categories
Weblogging

And introducing a new Australian weblog

I think an appropriate end to Australia Day is to introduce you to a new Australian weblog, Marius Discovering Photography — a photoblog (photography weblog).

Welcome Marius! I especially liked the parachute photo and pic of your Dad. Your dog’s cute, but you need a cat photo.

Note that I’ve started a pool to see when Marius loses his photography theme and starts meta-blogging like the rest of us 😉

(Thanks to Jonathon for intro)

Categories
Technology

Attack of the Techie Woman

All that discussion about weblog statistic programs and Perl and Python in the last posting. I’m finding this incredible urge to tweak coming over me. The last time this happened, I hit FreeBSD Ports with a vengence and almost maxed my server installing goodies. And play, play, play, play!

I am Techie Woman! Hear me Code!

Playtime for Burningbird today consists of:

— playing with Redland the RDF Application Framework with APIs written in Python, Perl, Tcl, and Java

— Snooping around my server using SAINT to sniff out my network weaknesses, being very careful not to _accidentally_ sniff around any other network as this could be considered a violation of anti-hacking laws

— working on my RDF content management system, making the move to Tomcat and JSP using Jena (nummy)

All of the above necessary work to do for my books.

Don’t you love it when the work you should be doing and the work you want to be doing all come together at the exact same time?

Categories
Just Shelley

Nightmare

For the first time since I can remember, I had the most horrible nightmare last night. The kind that you have to fight to wake from, and when you do your heart is beating so hard you think you’ll wake the neighbors.

I dreamed that I was in a car somewhere out in the country and it was dark and there was someone after me. I remember in the dream that I couldn’t see through the windshield very well, especially when the person after me smashed a bar down on the glass, creating a spiderweb of cracks. I remember in the dream continuously turning the key in the ignition and though I didn’t hear the sound of the engine turning over, the car moved. However, the car was moving so slowly, it was like going through molasses. And as I was moving, I knew this person (whose face I never could see) was catching up to me. He was behind me. He was near my left rear tire. He was near my door, running, reaching out for the handle…

I actually had to struggle to wake up. And when I did I lay in bed in the dark and listened to the sound of cars on the freeway and the fan in my room and my heart beating and blew a kiss to the night air in thanks that the damn thing was only a dream.

So — what does it mean, all you dream analysis people? Other than I should cut back on my consumption of ruby red grapefruit (one of my favorite foods).

Categories
Political

Spot of shame on Blogspot

I’ve been reading some of the postings of Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit.com, a law professor — of constitutional law, no less — from Tennesse who comes out with the most hate filled, war mongering, bullshit I’ve ever had the displeasure to read.

Since when did racial bigotry — of any kind — become patriotic? Since when did the talk containing the most flammable hyperbole, such as a recent post where Reynolds suggested that what we needed to do was attack the Saudis, first become the sayings of a wise man?

What particularly pisses me off is that Reynolds categorizes those demonstrating for peace as being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel, and hence Anti-Semitic and hence a Blackshirt. Think I’m exagerating? Read today’s postings.

I am very much for a lasting peace in the Middle East, with the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians respected and enforced. I think any behavior associated with racial or religious bigotry should be treated for what it is: hatred of that which is different; hatred of that which is feared. Any rational, thinking human being should reject all of it — all of it!

Yet my desire for peace, my growing activism for peace, labels me pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israeli, and therefore Anti-Semitic and a Blackshirt.

Welcome to the USA — home of free speech and even freer hatred. The land of name calling and vicious labeling.

I would like to say that I can practice my freedoms by choosing _not_ to read Glenn Reynolds and the other warbloggers. However, these people live and speak in my country; if I don’t pay attention to what they’re saying, and counteract it when I can, someday their voices will be the only ones heard. And that thought scares the hell out of me.

Oh and by the way — Mr. Reynolds brags about how many hits he gets to his weblog — hosted at blogspot.com. Those of you running weblogs on blogspot, you might want to send him a note of thanks next time the server goes down.