LadySheba

Bot-Spanking

posted on 2/10/2007 7:36:40 PM in Blogging: (1) Comments

Bots. I've got spambots bombarding my blogs, and they especially like my Commentaries blog. In about a week that blog has collected almost 400 spam comments. None of them got onto the blog itself because I've installed a pretty nasty spam killer. Still, the hits rack up bandwidth and I'm starting to get a bit nervous. About 90% of the spam is coming from one IP address, and I'm fairly certain that by blocking that address from picking up the site I won't be locking out any legitimate comments.

We'll see.

Roy Who? Carolina What?

posted on 2/4/2007 10:00:05 AM in Sports: (1) Comments

#3 UNC 79, NC STATE 83

That's all you need to know.

Oh, my Super Bowl prediction: 28-10 Bears.

Panther Prowling

posted on 1/19/2007 12:39:54 PM in Digital Dabblings: (2) Comments

My indigo iMac is now running OS X Panther, and it's almost like I have a new computer. There are hangovers from OS 9, however. The biggest problem is the software. Most of the stuff isn't OS X compliant, and I'm not all that crazy about finding new versions or replacing them outright. I need a good graphics program. MacGIMP has to run in the X11 environment, and I have no experience with UNIX, so that's out. Adobe Photoshop Elements was a fine program, but I always wanted the full version. I need new versions of my fractal software as well.

Installing Panther is a stop-gap measure until I can save up enough money for a new computer. That's going to be one heck of a jump forward, too. It will most likely be a newfangled iMac with an Intel Duo Core chip running Leopard. Maybe by that time, more software will be available to run on Intel Macs.

Quickie BBQ Sauce

posted on 12/31/2006 5:11:43 PM in Food: (0) Comments

Not much here: ketchup (probably 1 or 2 cups), a few shakes of onion powder and garlic power, and quite a few shakes of Liquid Smoke. No need for vinegar because it's in the LS. Simmer SLOWLY over low heat for an hour. Depending on what brand of ketchup you use, it may turn out a little thick or a little thin. The smell of it will find every little crack and crevice of your house/apartment.

Four-Alarm Collards

posted on 12/24/2006 10:02:41 PM in Food: (0) Comments

Originally, I cooked the collards this way to avoid the salt and fat in the ham hocks you'd usually use to season them:

2 pounds of collard greens (I used frozen, but fresh will work, too)
1 tablespoon of onion powder
1/2 tablespoon of cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke
1 can of beef broth
salt (I just shook the box, maybe about 2 tablespoons)
water

Add just enough water in the pot to cover the greens. Once they start boiling add the other ingredients. The greens took about 40-45 minutes to get done. Drain them; the "pot liquor" doesn't taste very good, so I poured it out. They'll set the roof of your mouth on fire right out of the pot, so you got to let them sit for a while. They're even more tolerable after they sit in the refridgerator overnight.

Next time I cook them, I'll cut WAY back on the cayenne.

No Big Deal, But Still...

posted on 12/21/2006 5:16:08 PM in Food: (0) Comments

Did the frantic shopping thing at Wally World today. I decided not to go too all out for Christmas dinner. I am going to cook collards, though, which will be the first time ever. I'm going to season them with something other than ham hocks or a slab of bacon. (Anyway, I could probably get either from my mother's freezer.) There's so much chicken in my freezer that I'll cook some of that for Monday.

Right now, I'm eating my way through a pizza I got from a place near Wal-Mart. They make the best New York-style pizza this side of New York. These guys get it right. Their "small" is almost as big as most other places' "large". The crust is so thick, you have to fight your way through it. The sauce isn't really sweet like you find at the big pizza chains. The toppings are generous and the slices are so big you have to fold them to eat them. Just like the pizza I used to get from a place on Broadway on the Upper West Side. You could smell it coming from around the corner, mingled with the smell of Puerto Rican food and soul food. That part of my life wasn't very happy, but I remember the food.

Christmas So Far

posted on 12/20/2006 6:04:11 PM in Personal: (1) Comments

I say "so far" because I don't think of it as only one day. So far, I've gotten two things I wanted. First, my alma mater NC State got a new head football coach, and a good one! Tom O'Brien (late of Boston College) is settling just nicely. Second, UPS didn't foul up shipping my Darth Maul 12" figure from Sideshow Collectibles. I can't begin to say how pleased I am with this figure, and it was great to finally get him after waiting six months. (Eventually, I'll get around to posting a review on my website.)

Looking ahead, I'll be cooking around Christmas, and it's something I've never done before. I still don't know what I'll be cooking; maybe I'll figure something out when I get to Wal-Mart tomorrow.

Shaky Seasons

posted on 9/22/2006 8:06:41 PM in Sports: (0) Comments

Okay, the Wolfpack is 1-2 with fans howling for Chuck Amato's head on a platter and a big game with Boston College tomorrow. The Panthers are 0-2 set to play the Buccaneers (also 0-2) Sunday. Where do they need to improve? Swing your stick, you'll hit it.

What's next? The Hurricanes are gonna lose their first ten games?

Everything's Coming Up...Mushrooms

posted on 9/9/2006 4:41:10 PM in Around Town: (1) Comments

It's been raining and/or cool for a few days last week, making my joints ache rather nicely. Once it did clear up, I drove around wondering what I was going to eat for lunch/dinner. Then I noticed all the yards and green spaces covered with mushrooms. The temps and humidity were just right for them to sprout. Today I noticed even more mushrooms. But people are out doing yardwork, so the little fungi will be going bye-bye until the next cool humid day.

I always look for fairy rings, those mushrooms that grow in a circle. They always grow in the same spots, and each mushroom in the ring is always the same species. Odd harbingers of fall.

Again...

posted on 9/7/2006 12:45:30 PM in Food: (0) Comments

Last night: fried skinless boneless chicken thighs.

This is getting scarier.

Ernesto Is Coming

posted on 8/31/2006 8:22:41 PM in Ugly Weather: (2) Comments

Right now Ernesto is still south of Wilmington and is due to make landfall in about an hour. He's projected to run straight north on a course that will take it just east of where I am. The rain has definitely picked up, but it hasn't gotten too windy yet. (As soon as I typed that, the wind whistled past the window.) I'm hoping it doesn't turn out too bad because I got to get grub tomorrow, storm or no storm.

EDIT: oops, landfall in three hours.

I Have To Actually...You Know...Cook Something!

posted on 8/31/2006 3:35:10 PM in Food: (0) Comments

I don't like to cook. I prefer to get my food out of a package or a drive-thru window. If it has to be warmed up, I'm down with that. But the idea of thawing something out or watching a boiling pot of something leaves me cold. I know you can't always run out to the restaurant, but I have to be absolutely desperate before I turn on that stove. I think I passed "depserate" yesterday when I thawed out a pack of chicken drummettes and fried them. Now I'm getting ready to bake chicken breasts in the oven.

Scary.

Bah!

posted on 8/23/2006 4:22:22 PM in Blogging: (0) Comments

This template thing is driving me nuts. Nothing is working. Build it from scratch, nothing. Base it on a pre-existing template, nothing. Either I'm not as clever as I thought, or I should be taking naps instead of working on it when I'm slam-out tired.

Hey, You Star Trek Fans Out There...

posted on 8/16/2006 7:57:37 PM in Geekdom: (3) Comments

You know all those inspirational posters you see in people's offices? One word, a picture, and a description? (Yeah, I know, annoying.) Well, somebody took those posters and added a Star Trek twist to them. Funny stuff.

Star Trek Inspirational Posters

Busy Beaver

posted on 8/14/2006 8:38:58 PM in Blogging: (1) Comments

Instead of building a new template from scratch, I'm going to alter the theme I use for my Throne Room blog. Like I said I would waaaaaaaay back in 2005. That will go a long way toward relieving my discomfort at having to test and debug something new. I rank testing and debugging a little ahead of actually coding as my least favorite part of being a denizen of the internet.

A Taste Of Fall

posted on 8/12/2006 10:11:45 PM in Around Town: (1) Comments

Finally! No triple-digit temps, or nineties! The breeze was wonderful, and I didn't have to run the air conditioner. (I'm also happy my power bill didn't get into the triple digits, too.) It won't last long, however. Nineties coming back Monday.

Not Lazy, Just Tired

posted on 8/11/2006 8:02:17 PM in Digital Dabblings: (1) Comments

Not too tired today, or I wouldn't be posting right now. Anyway, I still don't like the template very much, so I'm going to attempt to do a new one. Writing code is not my favorite sport, but if I have to do it, I have to do it. And I should update my main gallery. I've really fallen behind uploading stuff, plus I can't recall what I named some of my fractals. They only have dates in their file names, and I don't name them until I upload them to my other gallery. But that website is paralyzed by a new layout and bad BAD coding, so I can't access it right now.

One of my fractals, "Tranlucence":



(click pic to enlarge)

Lurking Around

posted on 8/10/2006 11:25:25 PM in Personal: (2) Comments

It's been months since I've posted here. I thought i would feel more comfortable posting to my website's blog, but I haven't done anything there, either.

EDIT: I got to do something about this template. Too bright and cheery!

Real Life Strikes Back

posted on 4/23/2006 7:32:41 PM in Personal: (0) Comments

Well, a major upheaval in my life is taking place right now, and it's going to cost me. To get things done, I'll have to dip into the money I was putting aside for a new computer. You can forget about Christmas; there probably won't be enough money until well into next year.

Life sucks. :(

A Christmas To Look Forward To

posted on 4/6/2006 8:22:36 PM in Digital Dabblings: (2) Comments

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I'm not going to spend anymore time or money on my little upgrade project. It's just too much trouble. My indigo baby is too old to learn new tricks. It's still a decent computer, so I'm not going to put it on the curb.

Still, what to do now? Well, can't really do anything now. But I can save money for a new computer. I have a good head start on a Mac mini, and if I'm really watch my spending, I could have the Mac and a monitor around Christmas. Finally, something to look forward to!

I Feel Stupid...

posted on 3/20/2006 5:51:35 PM in Digital Dabblings: (1) Comments

So I give in and go ahead with upgrading to OSX. I buy a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive so I can install it. Off the shelf, Tiger is a DVD-ROM. Guess what? I can't use it. Why? I bought a USB drive, and you can only boot OSX from a Firewire drive! So I spent $60 on a rebuilt drive I can only use to burn CDs (at a very slow rate). This means I'll have to go through the trouble of buying Tiger, filling out some form, ship Tiger back to Apple, and wait for them to get around to sending me Tiger on a CD. All on my dime.

It's About Time

posted on 2/9/2006 8:04:43 PM in Digital Dabblings: (0) Comments

After much tearing out of hair, DarthSheba.com finally has a front door. (Link is in the sidebar.) There's still a lot to do: a couple of my mini-sites need to be redone, and it looks like I'm going to have to learn more PHP just to put a menu bar on my gallery site. Yuck. Anyway, in making the home page, I altered the theme I use for the Throne Room blog. It wasn't as simple as getting rid of the all PHP code, and I had to use some tricks I learned from changing Blogger templates. The stylesheet is still long, but that won't really change all that much once I adapt the template for use here.

Not Really Ugly...Just Strange

posted on 1/29/2006 2:10:39 PM in Ugly Weather: (1) Comments

This time of year I would be reporting on being trapped in the house by an ice storm. It's actually past the time for that; ice storms usually come around between the middle of December and the end of January. The month is almost over and nothing. On top of that, it hasn't really gotten cold yet. I mean, freezing and below cold. There's another month and a half to go in the season, so there's still enough time for real winter weather to show up. It can snow as late as April here...if it snows at all.

Slogging It Out On The Road

posted on 1/16/2006 8:01:02 PM in Sports: (0) Comments

They always say you've got to win the road games, and, so far, the Panthers have. In New York, in Chicago, and they have to do it again in Seattle next Sunday. They'll be the underdogs, but so what? All that matters is that you come away with the W. Losing is not an option.

I'm A Lazy Bum

posted on 1/9/2006 1:01:26 PM in Digital Dabblings: (0) Comments

I still haven't done anything on the template. Blah. But I did do some testing on the new version of WordPress. I'm not going to upgrade until the bugs fall out in the .1 version, which has got to be coming fairly soon with the complaints. I also upgraded my gallery software and added some new pieces.

So maybe I wasn't so lazy this weekend.

Tools Of The Trade

posted on 1/5/2006 12:53:56 PM in Writing: (2) Comments

I can't recommend this more strongly: if you a write, keep a journal. Obvious, but it's not so obvious what kind of journal to get. Everyone has their own preference, or none. Me, I'm picky. One, it has to be spiral-bound so it can lie flat when it's open. Two, the lines on the page have to go from one edge to the other. Three, it has to look nice, but it can't scream "THIS IS A JOURNAL!" No funky designs or artwork.

It can get difficult to find what I'm looking for. Once I tried to find one on Amazon, but, of course, you can't pick up something online, and when you get it, you might not really like it. I highly recommend going out to a bookstore and looking for one in person. You're going to spend a lot of time with it, and you have to be comfortable with it. It has to feel right. And I finally bought a new one after losing interest in keeping a journal on my computer. I did that on and off for four years; it just isn't the same as writing something down. Plus, I'm paranoid that if something happened to the computer, there's no hardcopy to start over with. Well, the journal solves that nicely.

In The Year 2006...

posted on 1/1/2006 5:08:52 PM in Personal: (0) Comments

I don't think in terms of years as in "this year I'm going to do _____". The last few years have shown me that making little appointments like that really gets you nowhere. You what you need to do when you need to do it. There are things that take me years to do, like writing a book or even planning a book, but those have their own timetables. One thing I will do is finally unify all my internet exploits under one domain name, or, at least all the stuff I do as Darth Sheba. That's why I bought the domain, after all.

Stuff To Do & Stuff I Didn't Do

posted on 12/28/2005 8:49:04 PM in Digital Dabblings: (1) Comments

I guess I'll be testing new software on New Years. Version 2.0 of a package I'm using is out out, and I want to know if I should upgrade. Right now, I'm pretty happy with what I have. Also, I'll get started adapting the theme I used for the Throne Room so I can use it here. It shouldn't be too bad; no PHP to deal with here.

It's been several weeks since I got Ubuntu, and I still haven't installed it. I've kind of soured on the idea of moving from OS9, mostly because of all the trouble I had trying to run Ubuntu live. I've backed up everything except the most recent stuff, so wiping the hard drive to partition it won't give me nightmares. One thing I've noticed about the world of Linux is that it's freaking hard to get help when you need it. I'm not patient, so if I'm staring at a blank screen, I want to know why yesterday, not a week later. And since not everyone has the same setup, an answer to a question might or might not apply to you. Yes, I need a lot of hand-holding. I don't want to install the stuff, then find out it doesn't work or is giving me a thousand problems.

So I don't know if I'll ever install it.

The Party's Over...

posted on 12/27/2005 1:40:10 PM in Sports: (0) Comments

Last night marked the 555th and last Monday Night Football game. It stinks that it will move to ESPN next season; I don't have cable! But that will mean three games on Sunday instead of two, which might not be so bad.

Okay, the Panthers are kind of in control their own fate as far as the playoffs are concerned. Losing last week to Dallas didn't help, that's for sure. Sunday's game will be against Atlanta, who understandably won't make it easy. Hey, if they can't go, nobody goes! The Panthers can lose and still get in, but it would be very difficult if not impossible.

Deal Or No Deal

posted on 12/22/2005 12:24:41 PM in Movies & TV: (4) Comments

Anybody watching this? It's into its fourth night of a five-night run, but something tells me it will be back as a weekly show maybe in the summer. There's a kind of car accident quality to it and is mildly addictive. I guess well have to see what the Nielsons say.